China says Indian troops fired warning shots in border dispute
File photo
China has said Indian troops violated a bilateral agreement and fired warning shots in the air during a confrontation with Chinese personnel on the disputed border on Monday, amid renewed tensions between the two countries.
Chinese border guards took “countermeasures” to stabilise the situation, Zhang Shuili, spokesman for the military’s western command theatre, said in a statement published by the military’s official news website early on Tuesday.
The statement did not make clear what those measures were or whether Chinese troops also fired warning shots.
Both sides have observed a long-held protocol to avoid using firearms on the sensitive, high altitude frontier running through the western Himalayas, though this agreement has not prevented casualties.
Twenty Indian soldiers were killed in hand-to-hand fighting in a clash in June, an incident that led to China and India deploying additional forces along the frontier.
“We request the Indian side to immediately stop dangerous actions...and strictly investigate and punish personnel who fired shots to ensure that similar incidents do not occur again,” Zhang said in the statement.
The Indian embassy in Beijing did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment outside of business hours.
The latest incident comes after India and China on Saturday agreed to work towards reducing tensions along their contested border, following a meeting of the defence ministers of the nuclear-armed Asian giants.
Both sides deployed additional forces along the frontier running through the western Himalayas after a clash in June. Both countries had agreed that “neither side should take any further action that could either complicate the situation or escalate matters in the border areas,” India’s defence ministry said in a statement.
China called on India to strengthen control of its frontline forces, refrain from provocative actions and “refrain from deliberately hyping and disseminating negative information”.