Peace along Indo-China border must for bilateral ties: India

During a press briefing, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Gopal Baglay told  media persons that: "India's position on this issue and related facts have been articulated in our Press Statement of June 30, 2017."

"India considers that peace and tranquility in the India-China border areas is an important pre-requisite for smooth development of our bilateral relations with China," he said.

The statement came amid a sustained standoff between India and China at Dokalam near the Sikkim Sector, which China claims to be its own  territory where India has deployed troops.

Earlier Chinese President Xi Jinping had said that his country will never compromise on its sovereignty, security or development interests.

"The Chinese people love peace. We will never seek aggression or expansion, but we have the confidence to defeat all invasions. We will never allow any people, organization or political party to split any part of Chinese territory out of the country at any time, in any form," Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, had said  at the ceremony to mark the 90th founding anniversary of the People's Liberation Army, which falls on August one.

"No one should expect us to swallow the bitter fruit that is harmful to our sovereignty, security or development interests," he had added.

The people's army should firmly safeguard the CPC's leadership and the socialist system, protect national sovereignty, security and development interests as well as regional and world peace, he had said.