China, India diplomats meet amid tensions over Kashmir

FILE- In this May 31, 2019 file photo, Kashmiri protesters clash with Indian police men in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir. For decades a separatist movement has fought Indian rule in Kashmir, which is split between Pakistan and India and claimed by both in its entirety. Some 70,000 people have died in clashes between militants and civilian protesters and Indian security forces since 1989. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin, File)

BEIJING  — Top Indian and Chinese diplomats have met in Beijing amid increased tensions over New Delhi’s move to change the legal status of territory it controls in Kashmir, part of which China claims as its own.

China’s official Xinhua News Agency said Foreign Minister Wang Yi told Indian Minister of External Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar in Beijing on Monday that China hopes India will “play a constructive role in regional peace and stability.”

Xinhua cited Jaishankar as saying India would “abide by the consensus reached with China on maintaining peace in the border and continue to work with China to properly solve the border issue through consultations.”

The countries went to war in 1962 over their disputed border and engaged in a 10-week standoff in the neighboring state of Bhutan in 2017.  /muf