China army warns India to "draw lessons from the stand-off"

BEIJING: A day after both India and China pulled back their troops, ending a nearly 70-day-long dispute on the remote Doklam Plateau, China's army has warned India to "draw lessons from the stand-off."

"The Chinese military will remain vigilant and firmly defend its national territory and sovereignty following the military stand-off between China and India," Wu Qian, a senior PLA colonel, in a new statement said on Tuesday.

Wu Qian said peace and stability along the China-India border concern regional peace and stability and accords with the common interests of people on both sides of the border.

"We remind India to draw lessons from the stand-off, abide by established treaties and the basic principles of international law, and work together with China to safeguard peace and stability along the border and promote the healthy development of the two militaries," he added.

According the Indian media reports, China had removed bulldozers and other road-making equipment, indicating that Beijing had agreed to stop plans for a new road that triggered the crisis.

India and China on Monday agreed to an "expeditious disengagement" of troops in Doklam, located across the border in Sikkim, where soldiers had been locked in a stand-off since the middle of June.

The resolution to the Doklam stand-off comes ahead of a summit of the BRICS nations - a grouping that also includes Brazil, Russia and South Africa - in China beginning on Sunday, which India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to attend.