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Chinese troops have moved into a tense, disputed section of the Himalayan border shared by China and India, according to a high-ranking Delhi official.
Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh said Tuesday a “significant number” of Chinese troops had moved to the Line of Actual Control (LAC) between the two countries.
“It is true that people of China are on the border. They claim that it is their territory. Our claim is that it is our area. There has been a disagreement over it … India has done what it needs to do,” Singh said during the interview.
He added that top-level talks between the two countries would be held on June 6.
“We don’t want any country to bow before us, and we will not bow before any country,” Singh added.
India and China share one of the world’s longest land borders. In 1962, the two countries engaged in a bloody Himalayan border war, and tensions have continued to break out there sporadically in the decades since.
Last month, an aggressive cross-border skirmish between Chinese and Indian forces resulted in minor injuries to troops. The incident has been followed in recent weeks by unconfirmed reports of tensions in the mountainous area, though neither side had publicly acknowledged anything out of the ordinary.
On June 1, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Zhao Lijian said in a press conference that the situation on the border was “stable and controllable.”
“The two sides can resolve related issues through the established border-related mechanisms and diplomatic channels,” he said.
Zhao’s comments came a day after the nationalistic Chinese state-run tabloid Global Times published an article previewing an array of new military weapons, which could be deployed to “high altitude conflicts,” such as the Himalayan border.
“Chinese border defense troops have bolstered border control measures and made necessary moves in response to India’s recent, illegal construction of defense facilities across the border into Chinese territory in the Galway Valley region in May,” the article said.
Line of Actual Control
In 1993, after years of territorial standoffs and negotiations, China and India finally signed an agreement that attempted to mark out a long stretch of border between the two countries.
That border is known as the line of actual control, but its precise location can be blurry, and there is still a dispute between China and India as to where one country ends and the other begins.
Former Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao said on her official Twitter account that Delhi and Beijing couldn’t even agree on the length of the border between the two countries.
“The India China border is 3,488 kilometers (2,167 miles) long … In the Chinese definition, the India-China border is around 2,000 kilometers (1,242 miles) long,” she said.
Chinese state media has covered the issue, too.
“There is no line of actual control along the China-India border that both sides recognize,” the Global Times said in an article on May 25.
The last time border tensions ran high was in 2017 when troops massed in and around the disputed Doklam plateau, a thin strip of land at the tri-junction between India, China, and Bhutan.
Though not a part of Indian territory, the area is close to the “chicken’s neck,” a strategic corridor that serves as a vital artery between Delhi and its far northeastern states.
Bhutan accused China of constructing a road inside its territory, which Beijing denied. India then stepped in to support Bhutan’s claims, leading to a months-long standoff, which included live-fire drills by the People’s Liberation Army on the border.
