India / Chinese troops' aggressive behaviour violated agreements: Rajnath to China

Moscow: Union Defence Minister Rajanth Singh and his Chinese counterpart Wei Fenghe discussed the border tensions at LAC in Ladakh on Friday and agreed to find a solution through dialogue.

"Raksha Mantri categorically conveyed India’s position on the developments along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) including in the Galwan valley in the Western Sector of the India-China Border Areas in the last few months," a statement from the Defence Minister's office said.

"RM emphasised that the actions of the Chinese troops, including amassing of large number of troops, their aggressive behaviour and attempts to unilaterally alter the status quo were in violation of the bilateral agreements," it added. 

The two defence ministers met in the Russian capital on Friday at the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meet.

The meeting between the Indian and Chinese delegations, which started at 9.30 p.m. Indian Standard Time, went on for two hours and saw the border disputes discussed at length.

During the meeting, Singh stated clearly that "while the Indian troops had always taken a very responsible approach towards border management, but at the same time there should also be no doubt about our determination to protect India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity," the ministry said.

"Raksha Mantri conveyed that the two sides should continue their discussions, including through diplomatic and military channels, to ensure complete disengagement and de-escalation and full restoration of peace and tranquillity along the LAC at the earliest," read the statement.

This is the first political dialogue after the tension on the borders started.

Both the ministers are in Moscow to participate in a joint meeting of Defence Ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries.

Rajnath Singh, who is accompanied by a high-level delegation including the Defence Secretary and other senior officials, had, earlier in the day, addressed the joint meeting where he stated that India is committed to the evolution of a global security architecture which will be open, transparent, inclusive, rules-based and anchored in international laws.

India and China are engaged in a four-month-long standoff at the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh. Despite several levels of dialogue, there has not been any breakthrough to the resolve the deadlock, while Chinese`s People Liberation Army (PLA) troops had made fresh attempts at incursion attempts into Indian territory late last month.

China had made provocative military movements to change the status quo at Pangong Tso lake after Indian soldiers had earlier occupied the heights there to thwart the PLA`s land-grabbing bid.

On June 15, as many as 20 Indian soldiers and an unknown number of Chinese troops were killed in a violent clash in the Galwan Valley.

Chinese aggression started increasing along the Line of Actual Control and more particularly in Galwan Valley since May 5. The Chinese side transgressed in the areas of Kugrang Nala, Gogra and north bank of Pangong lake on May 17 and May 18.