China has urged India to immediately retract its forces that have crossed into the Chinese borders.
The Chinese boundary has been defined by the Anglo-Chinese Convention of 1890, which the Indian government has repeatedly agreed to abide by, China’s Peoples Daily reported on Monday.
“It is the basic principle of international law to abide by the treaty,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said. “The Indian side has violated the existed treaty by crossing the border, which also goes against the United Nations Charter and basic principle of international law.”
The border stand-off on a plateau next to the mountainous Indian state of Sikkim, which borders China, has ratcheted up tension between the neighboring giants, who share a 3,500 km (2,175 miles) frontier, large parts of which are disputed.
According to the Chinese interpretation of events, Indian guards crossed into China’s Donglang region early in June and obstructed work on a road on the plateau.
Troops from the two sides then confronted each other close to a strategic valley controlled by China that separates India from Bhutan – a close Indian ally – and gives China access to the so-called Chicken’s Neck, a thin strip of land that connects India to its remote northeastern regions.
Ties between China and India have long been frosty as a result of long-term territorial disputes, as well as Beijing’s support of Pakistan.
Chinese President Xi Jinping told Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month that the two countries should work to ‘appropriately’ manage their differences.
