External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Wednesday spoke on the phone and discussed the situation in Eastern Ladakh. The telephonic conversation came in the backdrop of a violent face-off between Indian and Chinese troops in Ladakh’s Galwan Valley in which both sides suffered casualties in Ladakh’s Galwan Valley.
Twenty Indian Army personnel, including a Colonel, were killed in the violent face-off. Indian intercepts have revealed that the Chinese side suffered 43 casualties including dead and seriously injured in the violent clash. The commanding officer of the Chinese Unit is among those killed, sources confirmed to ANI.
Earlier in the day, China said that it does not wish to see “more clashes” with India.“From the Chinese side, we do not wish to see more clashes,” said Zhao Lijian, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson. “We are having communication through diplomatic and military channels. The right and wrong of this is very clear… The incident happened on the Chinese side of Line of Actual Control (LAC) and China is not to blame for it,” he added.
On Tuesday, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Anurag Srivastava had said that violent face-off happened on late evening and night of June 15 in the Galwan Valley was caused by Chinese troops’ attempt to “unilaterally change” the status quo during de-escalation, and the situation could have been avoided if the agreement at the higher level been scrupulously followed by the Chinese side.
Srivastava said both sides suffered casualties in the violent face-off and the Chinese side departed from the consensus to respect the LAC (Line of Actual Control) in the Galwan Valley.
Responding to media queries on the situation in the western sector of the India-China border, Srivastava had said that India and China have been discussing through military and diplomatic channels the de-escalation of the situation in the border area in Eastern Ladakh.
EAM S Jaishankar underlined that this unprecedented development will have a serious impact on the bilateral relationship. The need of the hour was for the Chinese side to reassess its actions and take corrective steps: MEA pic.twitter.com/vradBmlABA
— ANI (@ANI) June 17, 2020
