image source,Getty Images
Data image: Indian soldiers patrolling near a mountain pass in the Ladakh region in 2021.
India said Indian troops clashed with Chinese troops in a disputed area of the border, the first such clash between the two armies since June 2020.
China and India have tried to ease tensions after clashes in the Galwan Valley in June 2020 left at least 24 soldiers dead.
Soldiers from the two countries clashed in the Tawang area of Arunachal Pradesh (called southern Tibet in China) in northeastern India on December 9, the Indian army said.
According to Reuters, citing Indian military sources, at least six Indian soldiers were injured. The Indian Army said the two countries have disengaged in the area.
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Western Theater responded to the conflict on Tuesday (Dec. 13) by saying that when Chinese border guards organized a routine patrol on the Chinese side of the current Line of Control on Dec. 9, they were ” illegally crossed and blocked’ by the Indian Army.
“I should deal with the situation professionally and effectively and stabilize the situation on the ground. At present, China and India have disengaged,” said Long Shaohua, spokesman for Western Theater Command.
He said China requires India to strictly control and curb frontline troops and maintain peace at the border.
Another Indian media cited unnamed sources that around 300 Chinese People’s Liberation Army soldiers were involved in the incident.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said on Tuesday, “According to our understanding, the current situation on the border between China and India is generally stable. The two sides have maintained regular communication on border issues through diplomatic channels and military”.
image source,Getty Images
The latest skirmish took place in Tawang district of Arunachal Pradesh, the Indian army said.
Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh told parliament on Tuesday that the incident resulted from a “unilateral change in the status quo” by the Chinese military, which then sparked a “physical scuffle”.
He said PLA soldiers had returned to their positions thanks to the “prompt intervention of Indian military commanders”. He added that the incident was “handled diplomatically”.
Singh said some soldiers from both sides were injured in the skirmish, but no Indian soldiers were “wounded or seriously injured” in the clashes.
China and India have the most complicated border delineation in the world: After the 1962 Sino-Indian War, most of the borders were disputed, and both sides had large numbers of military deployments along the current Line of Control .
India and China share a border of more than 3,440 kilometers, but both countries see it differently. Border patrol officers from the two countries have clashed frequently, with occasional scuffles, but both sides insist no bullets have been fired in 40 years.
The border dispute between China and India has always been a “minefield” in the relations between the two countries, which are contending for a land area of more than 120,000 square kilometers, involving three parts: the western part, the central section and the Oriental.
As the two largest militaries in the world, the Chinese and Indian armies battle it out along the line of effective control in many parts of the border. The rugged terrain, including rivers, lakes and snow-capped mountains, means that the demarcation line between soldiers often changes, can confront each other.
In June 2020, Chinese and Indian armies clashed in the worst clashes in decades in the Galwan Valley on the border between the two countries. Although no shots were fired in the center, at least 24 soldiers from both sides were killed.
The conflict, which took place in the Himalayas at over 4,000 meters above sea level, led to the freezing of relations between the two most populous countries in the world.
Experts observing the China-India issues point out that both China and India have carried out infrastructure construction in the border areas and related wider areas in recent years, which has become a focus of the competition between the two countries, with resulting in continuous border clashes between the two countries.
In April 2019, a Russian expert on China-India relations said that India plans to build 18 railways and bridges in Arunachal Pradesh (called southern Tibet in China) and other places to ensure faster transportation of troops and artillery. These transport facilities will ensure that the Indian Army can deploy its military forces in the Doklam area bordering China all year round. In 2017, there was a clash between the Chinese and Indian armies in the area, which almost led to an armed conflict.
