Indian, Chinese Troops Clash on Disputed Border

By Staff, Agencies

Indian and Chinese troops clashed on their disputed Himalayan border, the first known incident between the two nuclear-armed Asian powers in nearly two years.

In a statement, India’s Ministry of Defense said soldiers from both sides sustained minor injuries in the face-off, which took place Friday in the Tawang Sector in India’s northeastern territory of Arunachal Pradesh, a remote, inhospitable region that borders southern China.

The 2,100 mile-long [3,379-kilometer] disputed border has long been the source of friction between New Delhi and Beijing, with tensions escalating sharply in June 2020 when hand-to-hand fighting between the two sides resulted in the deaths of at least 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers in Aksai Chin-Ladakh.

In the latest incident, China’s People’s Liberation Army [PLA] troops “contacted” the line of actual control [LAC] – the de facto border – which was contested by Indian Army troops “in a firm and resolute manner,” according to the Indian Ministry of Defense statement obtained by CNN.

Both sides “immediately disengaged from the area” and the countries’ respective commanders there held a flag meeting to discuss the issue in “accordance with structured mechanisms to restore peace and tranquility,” the statement said.

China has yet to comment on the incident officially.

India and China went to war over their border regions in 1962, eventually establishing the LAC. But the two countries do not agree on its precise location and both regularly accuse the other of overstepping it, or seeking to expand their territory. There have been a series of mostly non-lethal scuffles over the position of the border in the years since, including as recently as 2021, according to a statement from the Indian Army at the time.

China has grown wary of India’s ties with the United States in recent years, as China-US relations have cratered and the Quad security dialogue, which includes India, the US, and American allies Japan and Australia has become more active.