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Crisis at the top of the world: India is massing its military on the disputed Himalayan border with China after clashes with Xi Jinping’s forces in the region raised fears of war between the nuclear-armed superpowers.
- India is moving thousands of its soldiers to the disputed border with China
- At the beginning of this month there were clashes between troops from both countries
- India’s foreign minister said they would “counter” attempts to change the border
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India has begun massing troops along its disputed border with China after a clash between soldiers from the two nuclear-armed superpowers earlier this month.
India’s Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said an unprecedented number of troops will be deployed along the 2,100-mile border with China.
Less than two weeks ago, an “invasion” by Chinese soldiers raised fears of war by sparking a skirmish with Indian troops.
The new incident on Dec. 9, which followed recent joint US-Indian military exercises near the border, led to “light injuries to (a) few personnel on both sides,” a source said.
India has begun amassing thousands of troops along its disputed border with China after a skirmish between forces this month (pictured: a clash between forces in 2021)
A map shows the disputed border and the locations of clashes between India and China.
Relations have hit rock bottom between the two nations since a clash left 20 Indian soldiers and at least four Chinese soldiers dead on their high-altitude border in June 2020.
“Today we have a deployment of the Indian army on the border with China that we have never had. It is done to counter the Chinese deployment, which has been massively expanded since 2020,” Jaishankar said in Delhi on Monday.
India said the meeting started due to the “invasion” of Chinese troops, while the Chinese Foreign Ministry said the situation at the border was “generally stable”, the BBC reported.
The dispute occurs along a 2,100-mile-long de facto border, called the Line of Actual Control.
India’s Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar (pictured) said an unprecedented number of troops are being deployed along the 2,100-mile border with China.
A view of the road on the way to the Line of Actual Control, on the India-China border at Tawang, in the north-eastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh.
Indian and Chinese soldiers come face to face and sometimes end up fighting, but with hand-to-hand combat or with sticks and stones.
The latest skirmish occurred on the disputed Himalayan border and followed recent joint US-Indian military exercises near the border.
The Chinese soldiers approached the area near the Line of Actual Control, where it had been agreed that neither party would patrol, the sources said.
This move was ‘contested by… the (Indian) troops firmly and resolutely’, a source said.
After the skirmish, both sides “immediately withdrew from the area”.
An Indian commander later met with a Chinese counterpart “to discuss the issue in accordance with structured mechanisms to restore peace and tranquility.”
The incident took place in the Tawang Sector of the northeastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, all of which is claimed by China. Beijing refers to the area as southern Tibet.