KATHMANDU: Nepal has spoken about a clash between Indian and Chinese troops at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh’s Galwan Valley on Monday night.

Issuing a statement on Saturday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that Nepal maintains that disputes between the countries should be resolved through peaceful means.

“Nepal has always stood firmly for regional and world peace. In the context of recent developments in the Galwan Valley area between our friendly neighbors India and China, Nepal is confident that both the neighboring countries will resolve, in the spirit of good neighborliness, their mutual differences through peaceful means in favor of bilateral, regional and world peace and stability,” it said in a statement.

As many as 20 Indian Army soldiers were killed during a face-off between Indian and Chinese troops. Even though there has been no official statement from China on the number of casualties during the face-off, Indian intercepts have estimated as many as 43 casualties on the other side.

This was the first Indian casualty in the border skirmish with China’s People’s Liberation Army since October 1975 when the latter ambushed an Indian patrol in Arunachal Pradesh’s Tulung La sector killing four soldiers.

What had happened?

India and China had agreed that Chinese soldiers would disengage and return to their territory on June 6. Talks between major generals of both sides were supposed to take place on June 16, according to reports.

As the Chinese troops didn’t go back, a team of the Indian Army led by Colonel Santosh Babu of 16 Bihar Regiment decided to hold talks with the Chinese side.

The (Chinese side) were reluctant to move back thus ‘aggravating’ the situation and started attacking the Indian delegation with stones, sticks, and clubs wrapped in barbed wire, Indian media had reported.