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Indian army vehicles
Photo: Dar Yasin / AP
China and India have agreed on first steps to ease the tensions that have flared up on their controversial Himalayan border.
According to an agreement between the two foreign ministers after a meeting in Moscow, the troops on both sides should "break away from each other quickly, keep a reasonable distance", continue their dialogue and reduce tensions.
China's chief diplomat Wang Yi and his Indian colleague Subrahmanyam Jaishankar met on Thursday at the meeting of the foreign ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in the Russian capital.
India and China accuse each other of provocations on the border line.
For the first time in more than four decades, shots are said to have been fired this week - both states accuse the other side of firing warning shots.
Relations between the nuclear powers deteriorated three months ago after a fatal border incident.
At least 20 Indian soldiers were killed.
The fatal collision was the worst in decades.
Even in de-escalation talks between military and diplomatic representatives, the tensions could not be resolved.
The border dispute between the two states has been going on for a long time.
In the 1960s, both countries fought a brief war that China won.
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi is under heavy domestic pressure to give Beijing a tough answer.
His country is militarily inferior to China.
Relationships at "crossroads"
During the meeting of foreign ministers, the Indian side expressed "strong concerns" about the large number of Chinese troops on the border, the Indian media reported, citing diplomatic circles.
The strength of these troops violated agreements from the 1990s, the Chinese side had not given a "credible explanation" for this stationing.
India would not tolerate unilateral attempts to change the border, it said.
Relations between the two countries are "once again at a crossroads," said China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
But it is normal for two large neighbors to have differences.
"What China and India need now is cooperation, not confrontation, as well as mutual trust, not suspicion," the state agency Xinhua quoted the foreign minister as saying.
It is imperative "to stop immediately provocations such as gunfire and other dangerous actions that violate obligations on both sides".
It is also important to withdraw all personnel and equipment that violated the border line, Wang Yi said.
He did not go into the fact that both sides have different ideas about the course of this so-called Line of Actual Control (LAC) - that is precisely the central point in the recent confrontations.
The foreign minister only said that China wanted to continue dialogue with India through military and diplomatic channels.
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