BEIJING, Jun 17 (APP): China’s State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi Wednesday said Indian side must not misjudge the current situation and must not underestimate China’s firm will to safeguard its territorial sovereignty.
In a telephone conversation with his Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar this afternoon, he also demanded of Indian side to conduct a thorough investigation on the border clashes and severely punish those responsible for the incident.
“The Indian side must not misjudge the current situation and must not underestimate China’s firm will to safeguard territorial sovereignty.”
“We demand that the Indian side conduct a thorough investigation on this, severely punish those responsible for the incident, strictly control the frontline troops, and immediately stop all provocative actions to ensure that such incidents cannot occur again,” he said during the conversation released by Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs here.
Wang Yi said on the evening of June 15, the Indian frontline frontier troops openly broke the consensus reached at the military-level meeting between the two parties.
Once the situation in the Galwan Valley has slowed down, they crossed the actual control line again and deliberately provoked, even violent, he added.
He said attacking the officers and soldiers who negotiated on the spot with China led to fierce physical clashes, resulting in casualties.
This risky act of the Indian army seriously violated the agreement reached by the two countries on the border issue and seriously violated the basic norms of international relations. China once again expressed its strong protest to the Indian side, he said.
The Chinese foreign minister emphasized that both China and India are emerging forces with a population of over one billion people, and accelerating their own development and revitalization is our respective historical mission.
He said, to this end, mutual respect and mutual support is the right way, which is in the long-term interests of the two countries; mutual suspicion and mutual friction is an evil way, contrary to the fundamental aspirations of the two peoples.
The two sides should follow the important consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries and strengthen the communication and coordination on the proper handling of the border situation through the existing channels such as the meeting mechanism between the special representatives of the Sino-Indian border and the meeting mechanism of the border defense force, so as to jointly maintain peace and tranquility in the border area, he said.
The Indian external affairs minister introduced the position of the Indian side and stated that the Indian side is willing to proceed from the overall situation of the relations between the two countries, implement the consensus of the leaders of the two countries with China, peacefully resolve disputes in the border areas through dialogue, and ease tensions in the border areas.
The two sides agreed to deal fairly with the serious events caused by the conflict in the Galwan Valley, jointly abide by the consensus reached at the military-level meetings of the two sides, cool down the situation on the ground as soon as possible, and maintain peace and tranquility in the border areas in accordance with the agreement reached so far between the two countries.
