China will release five Indian intelligence agents who were detained earlier this month in a region bordering Tibet against the backdrop of an agreement between Beijing and New Delhi to work for peace.

Citing unnamed sources, China’s official newspaper the Global Times reported on Saturday that the five Indian nationals were intelligence agents who dressed as hunters.

The newspaper dismissed claims that the people were kidnapped by Chinese agents.

An Indian minister said on Tuesday that the Chinese military had confirmed they had been found on the Chinese soil.

Chinese State Councillor Wang Yi and Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar met in the Russian capital, Moscow, on Thursday, in relation to the Tibet issue.

The top diplomats issued a joint statement, saying they had agreed to take steps to restore “peace and tranquility” on the disputed Himalayan border.

Beijing and New Delhi have been in renewed tensions since a clash in the Ladakh region in mid-June led to the death of 20 Indian troops.

On Thursday, the two sides reached a five-point consensus, including agreements that the current border situation is in neither side’s interests and that troops from both sides should quickly disengage in order to ease tensions, according to the statement.

The Global Times, however, said in an editorial late Thursday that any talks with India should be paired with “war readiness.”

“The Chinese side must be fully prepared to take military action when diplomatic engagement fails, and its frontline troops must be able to respond to emergencies, and be ready to fight at any time,” said the newspaper.

It warned that if India “keeps following its radical China policy, it will pay a heavy price.”

President Xi Jinping of China says the country will never give up an inch of its territory.

Source: Presstv