China blames India for border standoff and calls on it to withdraw its troops

China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi has blamed India for sparking a border standoff in the Himalayas by deploying its troops in Chinese territory and called on them to withdraw.

Wang is the most senior Chinese government official to comment on the tensions on the border near Bhutan as the stand-off enters its second month.

Wang said there was little dispute over the facts about what had happened on the border, weighing in on the worst border row between China and India in decades.

“The rights and wrongs are crystal clear and even senior Indian officials have openly stated that Chinese troops did not enter into the Indian boundary, which is to say, India has admitted it crossed into the Chinese territory,” Wang was quoted as saying in a foreign ministry statement published on Tuesday.

Wang also told reporters during an official trip to Thailand on Monday that the simple and straightforward way to solve the month-long border row was for India to “conscientiously” pull back its troops.