China accused India of violating border agreements on Wednesday, 16 September, while addressing a press briefing. The allegation came just a day after Defence Minister Rajnath Singh told the Lok Sabha that China violated the 1993 and 1996 boundary agreements by amassing troops along the LAC in 2020.
Responding to Rajnath Singh’s statement, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin said, “The responsibility for the current situation does not lie with China,” reported The Hindu.
The spokesperson further reportedly stated that, “The most urgent and important task is for the Indian side to immediately correct its wrong course of action, disengage on the ground as soon as possible, and take concrete actions to promote easing of the situation,” when asked why China had not withdrawn its troops.
“It is the Indian side that has violated the agreements, first trespassed, and first fired shots to threaten the safety of the Chinese border troops.”Wang Wenbin, Foreign Ministry spokesperson as reported by The Hindu
Reiterating his earlier statement, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh told The Rajya Sabha on Thursday, 17 September, that while India’s armed forces abide scrupulously by the agreements, this has not been reciprocated by the Chinese side.
“We have informed China through diplomatic and military channels that China’s transgressions along the LAC will not be accepted by India.”Rajnath Singh, Defence Minister
Talks between External Affairs Minister Jaishankar and his Chinese Counterpart Wang Yi held in Moscow on 10 September helped diffuse the border tensions partially. Addressing the five-point agreement between the two countries, Wang Wenbin reportedly said that China “hopes India will work with China to follow through on the agreement and other previously reached agreements, and put the border issue in an appropriate position in the bigger picture of China-India relations”.
On 16 September, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported that after warning shots were fired on September 7, Chinese troops had “raised their combat readiness to the second-highest possible” level. This alert was reportedly lowered after the Moscow meeting on 10 September.
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