China, India agree to maintain dialog over border issue: spokesman

China and India have agreed to de-escalate tensions at the border and work jointly to maintain peace and tranquility in the border areas, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said at a regular news conference on Tuesday.

At the briefing, Zhao confirmed that the two sides are in communication through both diplomatic and military channels.

"On June 22, the border troops of China and India held their second army commander-level meeting in the border region. It was also the first army commander-level meeting since the Galwan Valley incident occurred on June 15," he briefed the press.

"This meeting shows that both China and India are willing to properly handle their differences, manage the situation and ease tensions through dialog. On the consensus reached at the first army commander-level meeting, the two sides exchanged views on the outstanding problems facing border control in a candid and in-depth manner, agreed to take necessary measures to push for the de-escalation of the situation. They also agreed to maintain dialog and work jointly to promote peace and tranquility in the border areas," he added.

The Galwan Valley is located on the Chinese side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the west section of the China-India boundary. For many years, the Chinese border troops have been patrolling and performing their duty in this region.

Since April, the Indian border troops have unilaterally and continuously built roads, bridges and other facilities at the Galwan Valley. China has lodged representations and protests on multiple occasions but India has gone even further to cross the LAC and made provocations.

In response, Chinese border troops were forced to take necessary measures on the ground and have strengthened management and control in the border areas.

On June 6, border forces of the two countries held an army commander-level meeting in an effort to ease the situation.

On June 15, however, a clash broke out between the Chinese and Indian border defense troops in the Galwan Valley after Indian troops crossed the LAC for illegal activities and deliberately launched provocative attacks against Chinese personnel.