British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday said that the United Kingdom is closely looking at the situation in Ladakh after a violent face-off between Indian and Chinese soldiers on June 15, and urged the two countries to resolve their conflict through bilateral talks, PTI reported.

Johnson’s first statement on the India-China standoff came during his weekly Prime Minister’s Questions sessions in the House of Commons. Conservative Party MP Flick Drummond asked Johnson what the dispute between “a Commonwealth member and the world’s largest democracy on the one side, and a state that challenges our notion of democracy on the other” would mean for Britain’s interests.

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Johnson told Drummond that the violence between Indian and Chinese troops in Ladakh was very worrying. “Perhaps the best thing I can say is that we are encouraging both parties to engage in dialogue on the issues on the border and sort it out between them,” Johnson said.

United States President Donald Trump had on June 20 said that he was monitoring the tense situation between India and China. Trump also offered to mediate between the two countries for the second time. “It is a very tough situation,” he said. “They have come to blows, and we will see what happens. We will try and help them out.”

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Twenty Indian soldiers were killed and 76 injured in a clash with Chinese forces in Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh. China has not published its official number of casualties and dismissed reports that over 40 of its soldiers were killed in the clash. The face-off between the two neighbouring countries was the worst instance of violence along the Line of Actual Control since 1975.

India and China have been holding talks in an attempt to de-escalate the situation. On Wednesday, China’s foreign ministry said that the two countries would “strictly abide” by the consensus reached during a video conference between Director General Hong Liang of the Department of Boundary and Oceanic Affairs at the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Joint Secretary (East Asia) at the Ministry of External Affairs Naveen Srivastava.