India, China to set up second hotline

 
NEW DELHI, Feb 26: India and China have agreed to set up a hotline between their foreign ministers, although one is already in place between senior military commanders, as the two nuclear-armed neighbours look to reduce tensions along a disputed Himalayan border where their troops have been locked in confrontation since last summer.
The decision was reached at a lengthy call between the two foreign ministers on Thursday, India's foreign ministry said in a statement on Friday, adding that New Delhi was pushing for an quick resolution to the border crisis.
The nuclear-armed neighbours fought a border war in 1962 and last June their worst skirmish in decades left 20 Indian troops and four Chinese dead on the inhospitable frontier between Ladakh and Tibet, the Line of Actual Control. Both sides have sent thousands of extra troops and military hardware to the area since the clash. On Sunday, both countries said their troops had pulled out from a lake area in the western Himalayan region of Ladakh, where thousands of soldiers backed by tanks and artillery have been facing off since April.    -REUTERS