NEW DELHI, Aug 12 (Reuters) – India’s foreign ministry said peace along its disputed border with China is critical to ties between the Asian neighbours, amid reports of renewed military tensions between the two countries’ troops in a remote corner of the Himalayas.
New Delhi’s comment is its second in less than a week and comes as the Asian giants, who share a long and disputed frontier, mend ties following deadly clashes in 2020. It also comes ahead of a BRICS summit in New Delhi from September 12 to 13 that Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to attend.
“In matters relating to the border areas between India and China, we have always emphasised in discussions with the Chinese side that we consider these issues as most serious,” Indian foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said on Tuesday at a regular media briefing.
“We have also stated that the state of the border affairs will reflect on the state of our larger bilateral ties,” he added, responding to a question on new military tensions between the two sides.
The Chinese foreign and defence ministries did not respond to Reuters requests for comment.
Indian news website ThePrint reported after the foreign ministry briefing that Indian and Chinese army patrols came face to face in late July near Taksing, a remote border village in Arunachal Pradesh’s Upper Subansiri district bordering Tibet.
China claims Arunachal Pradesh, which it calls Zangnan, as part of southern Tibet. India says the state is an integral and inalienable part of its territory.
The incident reportedly took place 2.5 km (1.5 miles) inside territory controlled by India in the eastern Himalayas, and the Chinese later withdrew. But in early August, the Chinese returned to the area and pitched a couple of tents, the report said.
INDIAN DEFENCE AUTHORITIES DISMISS REPORTS OF NEW TENSIONS
Separately, a July 26 letter from a residents’ welfare body in the area to local authorities, seen by Reuters, said Chinese personnel were fast expanding their presence by “occupying new and important places of our land situated at border area”.
An Indian defence spokesperson dismissed the reports.
“These (reports) are unsubstantiated and uncorroborated, without any verification to substantiate these claims,” said the defence spokesperson in charge of Arunachal Pradesh.
It is not unusual for military patrols of the two countries to confront each other along the disputed 3,488 km (2,167-mile) frontier, but neither is it a frequent occurrence.
Clashes between the two sides in the western Himalayas in 2020 resulted in the deaths of 20 Indian soldiers and four Chinese troops, badly damaging ties between New Delhi and Beijing.
Both sides amassed tens of thousands of soldiers and equipment on the frontier there until Xi and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi held talks in 2024 and agreed to end the standoff and reduce tensions.
(Reporting by Saurabh Sharma and Tora Agarwala; Writing by Aftab Ahmed; Editing by YP Rajesh and Hugh Lawson)
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