India has moved more troops to its disputed border with China after a clash between soldiers of the two nations.
The Indian government said that it was mobilising thousands of troops along the mountainous 2,100-mile border, after an “encroachment” by Chinese forces triggered a scuffle with Indian troops 12 days ago.
The “nuclear-armed rivals” have been “locked in a stand-off” along the border for more than two years, said The Times, after China crossed the border to “seize strategic positions” in the disputed region of Ladakh, triggering a clash that left 20 Indian troops and at least four Chinese soldiers dead.
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The two nations share a disputed 3,440km (2,100-mile) de facto border – known as the Line of Actual Control – which is “poorly demarcated”, said the BBC. Rivers, lakes and snowcaps mean the “line can shift” and “the soldiers on either side” come “face to face at many points”.
In the light of the latest flare-up, Delhi claimed its troops had repelled the incursion after a clash that left soldiers on both sides with minor injuries. However, noted The Times, the situation “remains volatile” as China “steps up its military presence on the border, probing for weaknesses and moving tanks and artillery up to the frontier”.
Meanwhile, India’s opposition has accused Narendra Modi’s government of failing to take the threat seriously but foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar insisted that the Indian army will not let Beijing change the status quo along the border “unilaterally”.
Rejecting Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s criticism of the government’s handling, he said “the army did not go there because Rahul Gandhi asked them to go” but “went there because the prime minister of India ordered them to go”, reported the Middle East North Africa Financial Network.
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