China says Indian forces crossed border and fired warning shots

China said Indian forces crossed the territory it occupies along its disputed border and fired warning shots at a Chinese patrol in a move it called a “serious military provocation” and a violation of its agreements.

Nuclear-armed rivals have been involved in a tense standoff in the cold desert region of Ladakh since May, and their defense ministers met in Moscow on Friday for the first direct high-level contact between the parties since the standoff began. .

China’s western military command said the raid occurred along the southern shore of Pangong Lake in the area known in Chinese as Shenpaoshan yesterday.

After the shooting, Chinese forces took “the necessary measures to stabilize and control the situation,” the command said, in the statement citing spokesman Zhang Shuili.

He demanded that the Indian forces withdraw and investigate the move to open fire. There was no news of casualties from either side.

Late last month, India says its soldiers thwarted the Chinese army’s moves “to change the status quo” in violation of a consensus reached in previous efforts to resolve the confrontation.

The activity last month and Monday is alleged to have occurred on the southern shore of Lake Pangong, a glacial lake divided by the de facto border and where the confrontation between India and China began in early May.

The confrontation escalated to a medieval nighttime clash on June 15 that was the deadliest conflict in 45 years between nuclear-armed rivals. According to Indian officials, Chinese troops at the top of a ridge at the mouth of the narrow Galwan Valley threw stones, beat and pushed Indian soldiers over the ridge at about 4,500m.

India said 20 of its soldiers were killed, including a colonel. China reported no casualties.

The disputed and unmarked 3,500 km border between India and China, known as the Royal Line of Control, stretches from the Ladakh region in the north to the Indian state of Sikkim. The nuclear-armed Asian giants fought a border war in 1962 that also spread to Ladakh and ended in an uneasy truce. The two countries have been trying to resolve their border dispute since the early 1990s, without success.

-AP