The defense ministers of India and China have met in the Russian capital as the two Asian nuclear powers try to resolve rising tensions along their disputed border in eastern Ladakh.
Neither side gave details of Friday’s meeting between India’s Rajnath Singh and Chinese General Wei Fenghe, the first high-level contact between the two sides since the clash broke out months ago in the Himalayan region, where a clash in June he killed 20 Indian soldiers.
The ministers met on the sidelines of a meeting of the defense chiefs of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which includes China, India, Pakistan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
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India says 20 soldiers killed in border clash with China |
“Peace and security in the region require a climate of trust, non-aggression, peaceful resolution of differences and respect for international rules,” Singh said at the meeting.
The Indian Defense Ministry tweeted that the meeting lasted two hours and 20 minutes, without providing further details.
Wei told Singh that the two nations should “cool down” the situation and “maintain peace and quiet,” the Chinese Defense Ministry said on its website.
However, he said the responsibility for the tension “rests entirely with India.” “You cannot lose an inch of Chinese territory,” the Chinese ministry said.
The disputed 3,500-km (2,175-mile) border between the world’s two most populous countries stretches from the Ladakh region in the north to Sikkim state in eastern India.
The latest showdown is over parts of a pristine landscape that features the highest airstrip in the world and a glacier that feeds one of the largest irrigation systems in the world.
Tens of thousands of troops from the two nations have clashed on difficult terrain above 4,300 meters (14,000 feet) since border skirmishes broke out in April.
India accuses China of violating bilateral agreements by pushing its troops across the Royal Line of Control (ALC), the de facto border between the two Asian giants.
China, on the other hand, last week blamed India for invading LAC, saying “the move has seriously violated China’s territorial sovereignty.”
America ‘ready to help’
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said on Friday that his country is ready to help resolve the dispute between India and China.
Trump told reporters that the situation was “very unpleasant,” adding that the two countries “were going to do it with a lot more force than many people understand.”
A US government source told the Reuters news agency in Washington that the US assessment is that neither China nor India is interested in pushing the dispute to the point where they are involved in war.
Trump, asked about the dispute at a press conference at the White House, said Washington was talking to both countries about what it could do to help defuse the situation.
“We are ready to help with regard to China and India. If we can do something, we would love to get involved and help,” he said.
Trump has offered to mediate between the two nuclear-armed nations in the past. China has said there is no need for a third party to mediate, while India has also been cold on the idea.
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