India’s foreign ministry said peace along its disputed border with China is critical to ties between the Asian neighbours, amid reports of renewed military tensions between the two countries’ troops in a remote corner of the Himalayas.

New Delhi’s comment comes ahead of a summit of BRICS countries in New Delhi from September 12 to 13 that Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to attend.

“In matters relating to the border areas between India and China, we have always emphasised in discussions with the Chinese side that we consider these issues as most serious,” Indian foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said on Tuesday.

“We have also stated that the state of the border affairs will reflect on the state of our larger bilateral ties,” he added.

Indian news website The Print reported that Indian and Chinese army patrols came face to face in late July near Taksing, a remote border village in Arunachal Pradesh’s Upper Subansiri district bordering Tibet.