China on Monday used India’s claims of preempting Chinese military activity on the south bank of the Pangong Tso as evidence of Indian troops “illegally trespassing’’ the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and reiterated that “it is also important to move back all personnel and equipment that have trespassed’’.

This was stated by the Chinese ambassador to India, Sun Weidong, in response to questions. He was referring to Indian troops pre-empting an attempt by the Chinese troops to change the status quo on the southern bank of the 135km glacial melt lake on the intervening night of August 29 and 30.

Asked about the ground situation, the ambassador said: “Recently, the relevant Indian ministries had claimed in statements that Indian troops ‘pre-empted’ Chinese military activity on the south bank of Pangong Tso Lake, which obviously revealed… illegally trespassing the LAC and status quo change in the border areas.”

“Some Indian media had quoted government sources to disclose that the Indian army fired shots on two different occasions. For the first time since 1975, the calm in the border areas was broken by gunfire,’’ he said, again publicly blaming India for the escalation after the two foreign ministers, S. Jaishankar and Wang Yi respectively, had avoiding doing so in their initial statements after the meeting in Moscow last Thursday.

Further, the Chinese ambassador said: “State councillor and foreign minister Wang Yi reiterated in the meeting with EAM that the imperative is to immediately stop provocations such as firing and other dangerous actions that violate the commitments made by the two sides. It is also important to move back all personnel and equipment that have trespassed.

“The frontier troops must quickly disengage so that the situation may deescalate. The Chinese side supports enhanced dialogue between the frontier troops on both sides to solve specific issues, and will stay in touch with the Indian side through diplomatic and military channels.’’

The Chinese ambassador also claimed that the two ministers arrived at a consensus that India and China are partners, not rivals. This has been a recurrent Chinese formulation for pressing ahead with the relationship and not letting it be held up by the boundary issue.

India has resisted this time and again but Sun made it sound as if Jaishankar had come on board too at the meeting though the Indian statement makes it clear that “maintenance of peace and tranquillity on the border areas was essential for the forward development of ties’’.

In its earlier statement on the talks, the Chinese foreign ministry had also claimed that India’s policy towards China has not changed, and that the Indian side does not consider the development of India-China relations to be dependent on the settlement of the boundary question.

Though the two Indian statements on the talks do not indicate that India had taken such a position, the external affairs ministry did not respond to a question on whether New Delhi had taken up the issue of China misrepresenting Jaishankar with the mission here or the foreign ministry in Beijing.