China has laid claim to the entire Galwan Valley high up in the Himalayan border region where Chinese and Indian troops engaged in a deadly brawl this week.
The confrontation in the Galwan Valley, part of the disputed Ladakh region along the Himalayan frontier, was the deadliest in 45 years.
India blames China for instigating the fight by developing infrastructure in the valley, which it said was a breach of the agreement of what area remained in dispute.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said in a statement that “the Galwan Valley is located on the Chinese side of the Line of Actual Control in the west section of the China-India boundary”.
Soldiers brawled with clubs, rocks and their fists in the thin air at 14,000 feet above sea level but no shots were fired, Indian officials have said. The soldiers carry firearms but are not allowed to use them under a previous agreement in the border dispute.
Indian security officials have said the deaths were caused by severe injuries and exposure to sub-freezing temperatures.
The valley falls within a remote stretch of the 2,100-mile Line of Actual Control — the border established following a war between India and China in 1962 that resulted in an uneasy truce.
India’s Ministry of External Affairs spokesman Anurag Srivastava declined to comment on China’s claim to the valley. But Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a meeting with political opposition leaders on Friday that “neither anyone has intruded into our territory, nor took over any post”.
Mr Modi said India was “hurt and angry” about the deaths of its troops. He said India wanted peace and friendship, but had the “capability that no one can even dare look towards an inch of our land”.
Also on Friday, Mr Zhao said that China was not holding any Indian soldiers, without addressing media reports that China released 10 of them late on Thursday.
“My information is that at present there are no Indian personnel detained on the Chinese side,” Zhao said, according to an English version of his daily briefing posted on the ministry website.
Indian officials have denied that any soldiers were in Chinese custody.
