India and China have exchanged accusations of violating common borders in the region, which in recent days has become the scene of the bloodiest clashes in half a century between the two nuclear neighbors.
A day after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi sought to reduce the impact of the clashes that took place last Monday and at least 20 Indian soldiers were killed and more than 70 wounded, his government blamed the Chinese side for what happened.
New Delhi accused Beijing of seeking to establish construction "on the other side of the actual control line," which is the well-known name for the demarcation of the border between the two countries, and rejected India's request to stop it.
The government said in a statement that the country would not allow any unilateral changes to the disputed borders.
On the other hand, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Li Jian accused Indian forces of doing what he called "deliberate provocation" in the Himalayan border region.
In a series of comments on Twitter, Zhao said that the Gallowan Valley is located on the Chinese side of the Line of Control and that since April the Indians have built roads, bridges and other facilities unilaterally in the area.
He added that the Indian forces "crossed the actual line of control" and attacked Chinese officers and soldiers who were there to negotiate, which caused "fierce confrontations", and China has not announced any deaths or injuries among its soldiers.
For his part, Indian External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Anuraj Srivastava denied any Indian violation of the actual control line. He said the Chinese side's allegations are "unacceptable."
Washington entered the crisis line, as US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused China of escalating tensions with India over the borders. He said at the Copenhagen Virtual Democracy Conference that the Chinese army "escalated the border tension, and we see that today in India, and we are watching it while militarizing the South China Sea."
Moody surrenders to China
Modi apparently attempted to reduce the risk of engagement with Chinese forces. "No one has violated our borders, no one is there now, and none of our sites have been seized," he said.
But these statements put Moody in a "diplomatic minefield", as observers see, as he spread on Twitter and the tagline "Moody surrenders to China."
This statement raised questions about the whereabouts of the soldiers at the time of the clashes, and whether they were in Indian or Chinese territory, in an area where a large part of the border is unmarked and marked "common ground".
The statement also contradicted the assurances of the Indian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which accused China of having "an intention to change facts on the ground in violation of all agreements to not change the status quo."
Modi's comments were seen as a legitimization of China's allegations, and they drew angry reactions from Indian veterans and analysts who saw it as a ceding of India from its soil to avoid escalation.
It is expected that calls for Modi to clarify his position will increase, after China reiterated today that the Indian army soldiers violated the agreements.