Peace on border, please

Modi called for peace on Thursday in a joint press conference with Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is on his first visit to India since assuming office two years ago.

"There should be peace in our relations and in the borders. If this happens we can realize true potential of our relations," Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said during the press conference in New Delhi.

Modi addressed the contentious Sino-Indian border dispute after reports of an early-morning incursion by Chinese troops in the Himalayan region of Ladakh.

According to media reports, around 1,000 Chinese soldiers had crossed the border, forcing India to react: "The government has sent reinforcements," an anonymous source told AFP news agency.

Xi Jinping responded at the press conference, saying China was committed to working with its neighbor to maintain "peace and tranquility" on the disputed border.

"We also have the sincerity to work with India to maintain peace and tranquility in the border areas before we are finally able to settle the border question," Xi added.

Xi arrived in India on Wednesday for a three-day visit and was greeted by Modi, who was celebrating his 64th birthday in his home state of Gujarat. The visit will focus on economic and trade ties and Chinese investment in infrastructure.

Dozens of soldiers from both sides have faced off in the uninhabited Lakakh region for over a week, Reuters news agency reported.

A border was never clearly defined in the vastly uninhabited Himalayan region that separates the two nuclear-armed neighbors. Conflicts there have been counted as the highest in the world. A brief war was fought over the border in 1962. The Actual Line of Control (ALC) was established in the 1990s in a bid to end that dispute.

sb/nm (AFP, Reuters)