Beijing: China said Tuesday that the situation along the border with India was ‘generally stable’. This statement came days after the troops of the two countries clashed in the Tawang sector of Arunachal Pradesh, resulting in minor injuries to some soldiers on both sides.
Hours after the comments by the Chinese Foreign Ministry on the Sino-India border situation, Senior Colonel Long Shaohua, spokesman of the Western Theatre Command of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA), issued a statement. Shaohua claimed that the clash December 9 took place when its troops on regular patrol on the Chinese side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) were blocked by Indian soldiers.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin addressed a media briefing here Tuesday. He said the two sides have maintained smooth communication on border-related issues through diplomatic and military channels. Wang, however, declined to provide details of the December 9 clash between Indian and Chinese soldiers at the Yangtse area of Arunachal Pradesh’s Tawang sector.
Earlier in the day, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh made a statement in Parliament in New Delhi on the incident in the Tawang sector.
“The Indian Army bravely prevented the PLA from encroaching on our territory. The Army forced them to withdraw to their posts. Some soldiers from both sides were injured in the skirmish,” Singh said in his statement in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.
Singh further said the Army thwarted an attempt by China’s PLA to ‘unilaterally’ change the status quo in the Yangtse area of Arunachal Pradesh, December 9. There were no fatalities or serious injuries to Indian troops in the scuffle, he added.
Wang was asked here asked about the incident. “As far as we know, the current border situation between China and India is generally stable,” he said. “Beijing hopes that the Indian side will work with us in the same direction and smoothly deliver the important common understanding reached by leaders of both sides and act strictly on the spirit of relevant bilateral agreements signed by both sides and jointly preserve peace and tranquility in the border areas,” he added.
In his statement, Senior Colonel Long said December 9, the border defence forces organised regular patrol on the Chinese side of the LAC in Dongzhang area in the eastern sector of the China-India border. However, the troops were ‘blocked by the Indian Army illegally crossing the line’.
“Our troops’ response is professional, firm and standard, which has helped to stabilise the situation. Both sides have been under disengagement since then,” Long said. “We ask the Indian side to strictly control and restrain the front-line forces and work with the Chinese side to maintain peace and tranquility along the LAC,” he added.
This is the first major incident at the border after Chinese President Xi Jinping was re-elected for an unprecedented third five-year term at the once-in-a-five-year Congress of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC).