[Indian and Chinese soldiers engaged in a “minor faceoff” on Jan. 20 in the Naku La area of the state of Sikkim, the Indian Army said in a statement. The situation was “resolved by local commanders as per established protocols.”]
India and China share an unofficial
frontier that stretches 2,200 miles. Last June, the two countries engaged in
their deadliest conflict in more than five decades, a high-altitude brawl in
which 20
Indian soldiers were killed along with an unknown number of Chinese
casualties.
Since then, tens of thousands of
Indian and Chinese troops have been locked in a stalemate near the site of the
clash in Ladakh. Soldiers are enduring brutal winter temperatures high in the
mountains as talks have failed to deescalate the situation.
The latest incident took place
hundreds of miles from that standoff at a different section of the frontier in
the eastern Himalayas.
[What
are India and China fighting over?]
Indian and Chinese soldiers engaged
in a “minor faceoff” on Jan. 20 in the Naku La area of the state of Sikkim, the
Indian Army said in a statement. The situation was “resolved by local
commanders as per established protocols.”
Minor injuries were suffered on
both sides, said an Indian official with knowledge of the incident who spoke on
the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter.
A second Indian official, who also
spoke on the condition of anonymity, characterized the clash as “hand-to-hand
combat.”
Indian media
reports suggested that more
than 20 Chinese and Indian soldiers were injured in the scuffle. The
Indian Army statement did not mention injuries and asked the media to refrain
from “exaggerating or overplaying” their reporting.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman
Zhao Lijian said he didn’t have any information to offer on the incident and
urged India to exercise restraint, Reuters reported.
India should “refrain from actions
that might escalate or complicate the situation along the border,” Zhao told
reporters at a briefing.
Hu Xijin, editor of the Chinese
state-run tabloid Global Times, dismissed the reports of multiple injuries.
“This is fake news,” he wrote on
Twitter. “Based on what I learned, there is no record of this clash in the
patrol log of the Chinese side.”
The current frictions began in May,
when China intruded into areas claimed by India at several points along the
frontier, experts say. They believe that China may now control as much as
400 square miles of territory that India considers its own.
Last week’s confrontation came as
high-ranking military officials from the two countries were preparing to meet
for their ninth round of talks on the standoff at the border, which is known as
the Line of Actual Control. Col. Aman Anand, an Indian Army spokesman, said
Monday that the talks were “positive” and both sides had agreed to
push for an “early disengagement” of their troops.
Whether such pronouncements
translate into action on the ground remains to be seen. There have been no
further deadly clashes at the frontier since June, but the situation remains
tense. In September, shots were fired in Ladakh for
the first time in decades. By mutual agreement, Indian and Chinese soldiers
have been restricted from using firearms along the border.
India and China last fought a war
in 1962. Since then, they’ve mostly handled their border disagreements through
dialogue. The current impasse, however, is proving difficult to resolve. Shyam
Saran, a former senior Indian diplomat, said the fact that talks were still
taking place was “a reason to hope” that an understanding will be reached
through negotiation.
Saurav Jha, a defense analyst in
Delhi, was less sanguine. “Tensions are quite high,” Jha said. “When you have
large forces in close proximity and there is no resolution after rounds and
rounds of talks, then the probability of something happening cannot be
considered insignificant.”
Taniya Dutta in Delhi and Eva Dou
in Seoul contributed to this report.
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