China and India step back from border confrontation

China and India have stepped back from a tense confrontation along their shared border high in the Himalayas, pledging to resolve disputes over territory through diplomatic and military channels, India’s Foreign Ministry said yesterday.

The announcement came a day after military commanders from the two sides met near Chushul, a border village at the disputed frontier near Pangong Tso, a lake where troops from the two countries clashed last month.

The armed forces of China and India have been engaged in a standoff over the Line of Actual Control (LAC) at Ladakh. The demarcation line separates Indian-controlled territory from Chinese-controlled territory and was formed after the 1962 Sino-Indian War that China won decisively. The disputed Himalayan border was the main cause of the war.

Last month at a mountain pass of strategic importance, the two sides began dropping stones and also to physically beat each other, according to Chinese media.

At least four Indian and seven Chinese soldiers were injured.

Thousands of Chinese People’s Liberation Army soldiers were quickly rushed into Ladakh, erecting shelters, building concrete bunkers and setting up camps in areas that had been under Indian control.

Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said “large numbers” of Chinese troops had crossed into India’s side of the LAC. India responded by rushing troops to the Galwan River Valley in northern Ladakh and the Pangong Tso Lake in central Ladakh.

The Chinese “ingress into the Galwan River valley opens up a new and worrying chapter”, Ajai Shukla, a former Indian military officer and a defence commentator said.

Chinese state media has struck an ominous tone, with Global Times reporting: “If the two countries face a showdown on the border issue, the entire Himalayan region and the Indian subcontinent will face instability.”

The Global Times also warned China had an array of new weapons it could deploy.

China’s new arsenal includes

“weapons like the Type 15 tank, Z-20 helicopter and GJ-2 drone that should give China the advantage in highaltitude conflicts should they arise”, it stated.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh also responded strongly, stating: “If anyone violates our sovereignty or tries to make India bow its head, this country would respond with force.”

Meanwhile the details of the line of control remains blurry. The two countries cannot even agree on the length of the border.

“The India-China border is 3488km long . . . In the Chinese definition, the India-China border is around 2000km long,” Former Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao said.