New Delhi: Indian forces blocked Chinese soldiers from entering Indian territory on Dec. 9, causing casualties on both sides, India’s defense minister said on Tuesday.
The incident occurred in the Tawang sector of Arunachal Pradesh in the northeastern Himalayas of India. The region borders southern China and is also claimed by the Chinese government.
A spokesman for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Western Theater Command said Indian forces had “illegally crossed the line to thwart” the Chinese border forces’ routine patrols.
“We call on the Indian side to strictly control and restrain front-line forces and cooperate with China to maintain peace and security on the border,” he said.
An Indian defense source told Reuters that patrol teams from both sides met on one of the peaks and in the ensuing hand-to-hand combat several soldiers were injured after falling to the rock face. About six Indian soldiers were slightly injured, according to the report.
A borderless border, called the Actual Line of Control (LAC), means soldiers on both sides sometimes cross into each other’s territory, defense sources said. Events like this are picked up at flag meetings to avoid escalation.
As Defense Minister Rajinath Singh had already issued a statement in parliament about the PLA’s attempt to invade Indian territory, the source said, “We may recognize an area as ours. Sometimes they do,” he said.
“These were ongoing skirmishes, not big ones. This was not critical.”
Singh told parliamentarians that “several personnel from both sides were injured” in the brawl, but that there were no “significant casualties on our side”.
“PLA troops attempted to unilaterally change the status quo by violating the LAC in the Yangtze River area of the Tawang sector,” Singh said.
“China’s attempt was contested by our forces in a determined and decisive manner. The ensuing confrontation led to a physical brawl, in which the Indian army bravely stopped the PLA from invading our territory, Brought them back to where they were.”
China’s foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a news conference that the situation at the border was “generally stable”.
India’s foreign minister says relations with China cannot return to normal without border peace. India has stepped up scrutiny of many Chinese companies operating in India over the past two years, despite a surge in imports from China.
It was the first brawl between the two countries since deadly clashes in June 2020, when Indian and Chinese forces engaged in hand-to-hand combat in Ladakh’s Galwan Valley, which borders the Chinese-held Tibetan Plateau.
Twenty Indian and four Chinese soldiers were killed in the incident.
“The Chinese side was asked to refrain from such actions and maintain peace and tranquility along the border,” Xin said of recent tensions. I have.”
The 2,360 miles (3,800 km) borderless border between the nuclear-armed Asian giants has been largely peaceful since the war in 1962 until clashes two years ago quickly soured relations. – Reuters
