India on Thursday, 28 May responded to US President Donald Trump’s offer to mediate in the ongoing stand-off between India and China, saying that engagements between the two nations over the matter are underway.
Anurag Srivastava, spokesperson of the foreign ministry, as quoted by NDTV said India is "Engaged with Chinese side to peacefully resolve it".
"Our engagement on the diplomatic front continues both in Delhi as well as in Beijing," Srivastava added.
Earlier on Wednesday, Trump took to Twitter to say that the United States is "ready, willing and able to mediate or arbitrate their now raging border dispute.”
Trump’s mediation offer comes at a time when Chinese President Xi Jinping had on Tuesday, ordered his military to scale up the battle preparedness, considering the worst-case scenarios and asked them to resolutely defend the country's sovereignty. He, however, did not mention any specific issues that posed a threat to the country.
Trump is one of the first international leaders to acknowledge the continuing face-off between India and China in eastern Ladakh after a clash between soldiers from both sides on two occasions.
Avoid Making Situation More Tense: UN on India-China Tensions After Trump’s Offer
Soon after Trump’s offer, the spokesperson for the United Nations Secretary-General on Wednesday, 27 May, said, "It would be for the parties involved to decide who they would want to mediate, not for us to opine."
“We’re, obviously, looking at the situation, and we would urge all the parties involved to avoid any action that would make the situation even more tense,” Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for Secretary-General António Guterres, said at a briefing.
Indian and Chinese Army personnel clashed along the northern bank of the Pangong Tso in Ladakh on 5 May. Four days later, a face-off between the two sides was witnessed near Naku La Pass in Sikkim.
This is the first major stand-off between India and China after the Doklam episode in 2017 when Indian and Chinese forces saw a major face-off over the construction of a road by China.
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