India and China agree to ease tension on border, New Delhi says

Both sides deployed additional forces along the frontier running through the western Himalayas after a clash in June.

A man walks inside a conference room used for meetings between military commanders of China and India, at the Indian side of the Indo-China border at Bumla (photo credit: REUTERS/ADNAN ABIDI)
A man walks inside a conference room used for meetings between military commanders of China and India, at the Indian side of the Indo-China border at Bumla
(photo credit: REUTERS/ADNAN ABIDI)
India said on Saturday it has agreed with China to work towards reducing tensions along their contested border, following a meeting of the defense ministers of both countries.
Both sides deployed additional forces along the frontier running through the western Himalayas after a clash in June, during which 20 Indian soldiers were killed in hand-to-hand fighting. China has not released casualty figures for its troops.
India's defense minister Rajnath Singh met counterpart General Wei Fenghe on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting in Moscow late on Friday.
Both countries agreed that "neither side should take any further action that could either complicate the situation or escalate matters in the border areas," from India's defense ministry said in a statement.
The meeting is the highest level face-to-face political contact between India and China since tensions first flared along their disputed mountain border in May.