NEW DELHI (BLOOMBERG) - The India-China border tensions were discussed at the just-concluded foreign ministers' meeting of the Quad, a regional partnership that comprises Japan, India, the United States and Australia.

"Yes, we had a discussion," India's foreign minister S. Jaishankar told reporters in Melbourne at a press conference on Saturday (Feb 12).

"It was part of how we briefed each other about what's happening in our neighbourhood," Mr Jaishankar added, putting the blame on China for the ongoing border conflict.

The dispute has "arisen" because China had failed to honour agreements, he said, adding that when a large country disregards written commitments, it becomes a "legitimate concern for the entire international community".

India and China have been locked in a vicious border conflict for nearly two years in which 20 Indian troops and at least four Chinese soldiers have been killed. Both sides have amassed thousands of soldiers, tanks, artillery guns and fighter jets along the disputed Himalayan border.

While the two Asian countries have pulled back troops from friction points along the disputed border, talks between them to resolve the problem has been slow, with 14 rounds of diplomatic-military meetings yielding little.

The foreign ministers' meeting is a precursor to a conference of the Quad's heads of state in Japan later in the year.