New Delhi CNN —
Indian and Chinese troops have clashed at their disputed Himalayan border, the first known incident between the two Asian nuclear powers in almost two years.
In a statement, India’s Defense Ministry said soldiers from both sides suffered minor injuries in the duel that took place on Friday in the Tawang sector of north-eastern India’s Arunachal Pradesh, a remote, inhospitable region bordering southern China.
The 2,100-mile (3,379-kilometer) disputed border has long been the source of tensions 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.
Speaking to lawmakers on Tuesday, India’s Defense Minister Rajnath Singh accused China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) troops of “unilaterally” changing the status quo by trying to push the Limit of Actual Control (LAC) – the de facto limit of the two countries – to cross.
“The ensuing duel resulted in a physical scuffle in which the Indian Army bravely prevented the PLA from entering our territory and forced them to return to their posts,” Singh said, adding that there were no serious injuries on the Indian side have given.
In its earlier statement, India’s Defense Ministry said both sides “immediately withdrew from the area” and the countries’ respective commanders held a flag meeting there to discuss the issue “in accordance with structured mechanisms to restore peace and tranquillity.” discuss.
Singh said the meeting took place on Sunday and urged the Chinese side “to refrain from such actions and to keep peace and tranquility” along the border. The issue will also be addressed through diplomatic channels, he added.
China’s foreign ministry did not directly acknowledge the incident in a regularly scheduled news conference on Tuesday.
“As far as we know, the Sino-India border area is generally stable, and both sides have maintained smooth communication on border-related issues through diplomatic and military channels,” spokesman Wang Wenbin said when asked about India’s explanation of the incident, and showed reporters to “competent authorities” for “particularities”.
China hopes India is “on the same side” to “collectively safeguard the peace and stability of the Sino-India border,” he added.
India and China went to war over their border regions in 1962 and eventually formed the LAC. But the two countries disagree on the exact location, regularly accusing the other of crossing it or trying to expand their territory. In the years since, there have been a number of mostly non-fatal scuffles over the position of the border, including the most recent example known to date in 2021, according to a statement by the Indian Army at the time.
In September, the Indian government said Indian and Chinese troops had begun withdrawing from the Gogra-Hotsprings border area in the western Himalayas, two years after diplomatic relations were strained by clashes at the border.
The statement came ahead of a regional summit in Uzbekistan attended by both Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
Activities in the region continue to be closely monitored by both sides.
On Nov. 30, China’s foreign ministry criticized joint high-altitude exercises between US and Indian troops in northern India’s Uttarakhand, saying the exercises “did not help build bilateral trust” and that Beijing had expressed its concerns to New Delhi.
China has grown suspicious of India’s ties with the United States in recent years as China-US relations have become more crater and the Quad Security Dialogue, which includes India, the US and American allies Japan and Australia, has become more active .
Modi and Chinese leader Xi last met at the Group of 20 (G20) summit in Bali last month, where the two shook hands but did not have a bilateral meeting.
Speaking to parliament last week ahead of the skirmish, Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said there had been “anomalies” in China-India relations in recent years over border concerns and that New Delhi was “diplomatic” “very clear” been with China that they “will not tolerate attempts to unilaterally amend the LAC”.
“So As long as they keep trying, and if they have built up forces that we believe pose a serious problem in the border areas, our relationship is not normal,” Jaishankar said in response to a question on Sino-Indian relations, adding that the Military commanders “continue to engage each other”.