Stick to all bilateral pacts and protocols: India to China

New Delhi, Dec 04: India has underlined that the significance of all bilateral agreements and protocols including the agreements of 1993 and 1996. India said that the core issue is the need for both India and China to follow these to maintain peace and tranquility along the Line of Actual Control.

India said that it had told China after the June 15 Galwan clashes that it was a pre-meditated and planned attack by the Chinese troops. India further reiterated that the two countries had agreed to have another round of meeting between the military commanders of both sides at the right time.

Asked about the US panel's report in which it had said that the Galwan clashes were planned by the Chinese government, MEA spokesperson, Anurag Srivastava said that External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had conveyed to his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on June 17 that the Chinese took pre-meditated and planned action that was directly responsible for the resulting violence and casualties.

"I would stress that the core issue remains that both sides need to strictly follow the various bilateral agreements and protocols in their entirety, including the 1993 and 1996 agreement on maintenance of peace and tranquility along the LAC in the border areas," Srivastava said while recalling Jaishankar's statement.

Earlier this week, a top US Congress mandated panel had said that it was the Chinese government that planned the Galwan Valley attack in June.

In the Galwan Valley incident, 20 Indian soldiers were martyred while an unspecified number of Chinese soldiers were either killed or went missing.

The report of the United States-China Economic and Security Review Commission said that some evidence suggested that the Chinese government had planned the incident potentially including the possibility.

The report also said that the proximate cause of the clash appeared to be India's construction of a strategic access road to support troops stationed at the border areas. The report also highlighted how several weeks prior to the clash, Chinese Defence Minister had encouraged Beijing to use fighting to promote stability.

Further it was also pointed out that an editorial in the Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece, Global Times warned that India would suffer a devastating blow to its trade and economic ties with China, if it got involved in the US-China rivalry.

"Beijing ramped up its multiyear coercion campaign against its neighbors, provoking military or paramilitary standoffs with countries from Japan to India and much of Southeast Asia.," the report also said.