[ad_1]
BEIJING (AP) – India and China accused each other Tuesday of making provocative military moves and firing warning shots along their disputed border despite talks to end mounting tensions.
China said Indian forces crossed the territory it occupies along its disputed border on Monday and fired warning shots at a Chinese patrol in what it called a violation of its agreements. India denied this, saying that Chinese soldiers tried to surround one of its outposts in a “serious provocation” and also fired some warning shots.
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 on Monday. On the Indian side, the area is known as Chushul, where local military commanders from the two countries have held several rounds of talks to defuse the tense standoff.
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.
Colonel Aman Anand, a spokesman for the Indian military, said China continues “provocative activities to increase” tensions along the front line and called China’s military statement an attempt to mislead the national and international public. .
Anand said the Chinese soldiers had tried to surround an Indian military post and fired some shots into the air when the Indian soldiers “deterred” them. He said the Indian troops “exercised great restraint.”
He accused the Chinese army of “openly violating the accords and carrying out aggressive maneuvers while developing engagement at the military, diplomatic and political level.”
There was no news of casualties from either side.
At the end of 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. In turn, China also accused Indian troops of crossing established lines of control.
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 on its northern flank in early May.
The confrontation escalated to a medieval night 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, hit and pushed Indian soldiers over the ridge at about 4,500 meters (15,000 feet). India said 20 of its soldiers were killed, including a colonel. China reported no casualties.
The disputed and unmarked 3,500-kilometer (2,175-mile) 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 Arunachal Pradesh. According to China, the border is about 2,000 kilometers (1,240 miles) and claims all of Arunachal Pradesh as its territory.
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.
India unilaterally declared Ladakh a federal territory and separated it from disputed Kashmir in August 2019, ending its semi-autonomous status. The move further strained the relationship between New Delhi and Beijing, which raised the issue in international forums, including the UN Security Council.
In a symbolic move amid mounting tensions, India has banned dozens of Chinese-owned apps, including TikTok, citing privacy concerns that it said pose a threat to India’s sovereignty and security.
