Both sides deployed additional forces along the frontier running through the western Himalayas after a clash in June, during which 20 Indian soldiers were killed in hand-to-hand fighting. China has not released casualty figures for its troops.

In the highest level face-to-face political contact between India and China since tensions first flared along the border in May, defense ministers Rajnath Singh of India and General Wei Fenghe of China met late on Friday on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization meeting in Moscow.

Both countries agreed that “neither side should take any further action that could either complicate the situation or escalate matters in the border areas,” India’s defense ministry said in a statement, Reuters reported.

Wei said the two sides should promote peace and stability and work to cool current tensions, China’s Ministry of Defense said in a news report about the meeting posted on its website.

He said, however, that blame for the recent tensions lay “entirely with India”, adding that China was determined to safeguard its national sovereignty and territory.

China called on India to strengthen control of its frontline forces, refrain from provocative actions and “refrain from deliberately hyping and disseminating negative information”.

China has not said anything about any losses in soldiers in the hand-to-hand clash that took place in the heavily contested Galwan Valley in the western Himalayas, in which 20 Indian soldiers were killed and at least 76 injured, Reuters reported.

“If 20 were martyred on our (Indian) side, then there would have been at least double the casualties on their (China) side,” V.K. Singh, the minister for roads and transport, told TV News24 in an interview broadcast late on Saturday.

Singh, who is a former army chief, did not provide any evidence to support his statement. He said China historically never accepted any war casualties including in the 1962 conflict with India.

China’s state controlled Global Times said earlier there had been casualties on the Chinese side but did not elaborate.

Singh said the Indian side had handed over Chinese troops who had strayed into Indian Territory after the violent standoff.

India’s defense ministry spokesman Bharat Bhushan Babu refused to comment on Singh’s interview.

The nuclear-armed Asian neighbors traded accusations on Saturday that the other had violated their shared de facto border, an area that this week became the site of their deadliest clash in half a century.

Troops remain locked in a face-off at several locations along the poorly defined Line of Actual Control, despite talks between local commanders to de-escalate.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has criticized China for escalating border tensions with India.