China-India relations: both sides urge restraint in border stand-off but continue to play blame game
- Defence ministers Wei Fenghe and Rajnath Singh hold first face-to-face meeting since start of stand-off along Himalayan border
- Despite calls for restraint, they continue to blame the other side for the confrontation
China and India’s defence ministers both urged restraint in their first face-to-face meeting following a deadly clash along their disputed Himalayan border in June.
But the two rivals continued to trade barbs over who was to blame with China’s Defence Minister Wei Fenghe saying China would not give up “one inch” of territory.
Wei and his Indian counterpart Rajnath Singh held a two-hour meeting on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation defence ministers’ meeting in Moscow on Friday.
Wei said the two sides should work to “cool and ease” the tension and to “maintain peace and tranquility”.
“It is hoped that India will strictly abide by the series of agreements reached between the two sides, refrain from provocations on the current Line of Actual Control (LAC), refrain from actions that may cause the situation to heat up, and refrain from deliberately hyping and disseminating negative information,” Wei told Singh, according to the state news agency Xinhua.
In a statement issued by Indian defence ministry, Singh said that “the current situation should be handled responsibly and neither side should take any further action that could either complicate the situation or escalate matters in the border areas”.