Standoff with China will be long, India warns in pulled statement

GUWAHATI: India’s defence ministry has warned, in a statement since removed from its website, that a military standoff with China that began with border fighting in June is likely to be a long one, despite multiple rounds of talks between the nuclear-armed rivals to defuse the tension.

The ministry said in an update for June - which has now been removed - that Chinese forces had breached the border in the Kugrang Nala and Gogra areas and the north shore of Pangong Tso lake in the northern Indian territory of Ladakh on May 17-18. New Delhi says a “violent face-off” that followed the intrusion killed 20 of its soldiers in the western Himalayas. It was the worst outbreak of violence between the giant Asian neighbours in decades. China accuses the Indian side of crossing the de facto border and provoking its soldiers.