China and India have said they have agreed to press for an early disengagement of troops from the front after soldiers clashed along their disputed border in the Himalayas in the first violent fire in the area in seven months.
The two countries said at a commander-level meeting on Sunday that they would maintain dialogue and negotiations, according to a joint press release issued by the Chinese Ministry of Defense on Monday evening. China and India have agreed to hold the next meeting at an early date to advance the delay, the statement said.
The statement did not mention the last confrontation between the troops.
Soldiers on both sides were injured in the new violent fire along the border crossing the northeastern state of Sikkim, ANI reported. The Indian army confirmed in a statement that there was a “minor confrontation” in the Nakula area of North Sikkim on January 20, which was resolved by local commanders.
It is the same area where violence broke out between the two armies on May 9.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said in a daily briefing in Beijing on Monday that he had “no information to offer” about the clash reports.
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“I would like to emphasize, however, that China’s border troops are committed to maintaining peace and quiet along the border with India,” Zhao said. “We urge the Indian side to work in the same direction as us and to refrain from actions that could escalate or complicate the situation along the border.”
Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of the Communist Party-backed Global Times, called the reports “fake news” in a tweet, saying there were no records of the clash in the Chinese side’s patrol log. Hu’s tweets are closely followed after accurately forecasting Beijing’s previous moves, even though his statements sometimes do not reflect official policy.
Both sides moved thousands of soldiers, tanks, artillery to the border after the clashes in the Galwan Valley in Ladakh last June, which left at least 20 Indian soldiers and an unknown number of Chinese soldiers dead.
India and China share a disputed and unmarked border of 3,488 kilometers (2,167 miles), known as the Effective Control Line. The two nations held another round of talks at the level of the corps commander on Sunday, with the aim of ending the conflict.
– With the assistance of Sudhi Ranjan Sen, Lulu Shen, Lucille Liu, Colum Murphy and Jon Herskovitz