India’s Ministry of External Affairs on Thursday said that it hopes China will ensure “expeditious restoration of peace and tranquility in the border areas”, and honour bilateral commitments, in a bid to deescalate tensions, ANI reported.
Tensions have heightened between New Delhi and Beijing following a violent clash between soldiers of the two countries on June 15 in Ladakh along the Line of Actual Control, that led to the death of 20 Indian jawans and injuries to 76 personnel.
External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Anurag Srivastava told the media in a briefing that the Indian and Chinese sides have been engaged in meetings at both military and diplomatic levels, to address the situation along the Line of Actual Control. He said that senior commanders of the two sides have met thrice so far – on June 6, June 22 and June 30.
Srivastava said a meeting of the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on India-China Border Affairs was held on June 24.
‘’Both sides have emphasised the need for an expeditious, phased and step wise deescalation as a priority,” he said. “This is in keeping with the agreement between External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi during their conversation on June 17 that the overall situation would be handled in a responsible manner, and that both sides would implement the disengagement understanding of June 6 sincerely.”
Asked about India’s ban on 59 China-linked apps and Beijing’s protest against it, the spokesperson said India will continue to welcome foreign investments, including in the area of internet technologies, but only in accordance with government regulations, The Statesman reported. The Indian government had banned these apps citing security threats.
Earlier on Thursday, China had claimed that India’s ban on these apps was a violation of World Trade Organization rules. Chinese Ministry of Commerce spokesperson Gao Feng told reporters that Beijing hopes New Delhi would correct its “discriminatory actions” against Chinese companies immediately.
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