Nearly three years after India and China engaged in a bitter stand-off in Doklam plateau, this May the ties between the two countries came under strain once again following a violent face-off in eastern Ladakh.
A clash erupted between the troops of India and China along the northern bank of the Pangong Tso Lake in eastern Ladakh in the first week of May this year, in which several soldiers of both sides sustained minor injuries. It was the first time that Indian and Chinese military exchanged blows since the 2017 Doklam deadlock.
The Pangong Lake face-off was followed by a similar incident near Naku La Pass in the Sikkim sector of the Sino-India border.
The clashes came amid China’s strong opposition to India laying a key road in the Finger area around the Pangong Tso Lake apart from construction of another road connecting the Darbuk-Shayok-Daulat Beg Oldie road in Galwan Valley.
The fresh face-offs prompted both sides to rush additional troops along the 3,488-km-long Line of Actual Control, the de-facto border between India and China.
The simmering border tension between India and China flared up manifold in June when troops of both countries engaged in a violent face-off in Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh, in which 20 Indian soldiers were martyred and several others injured.
It is believed to be the first such incident after 1975 when four Indian soldiers lost their lives in a skirmish at Tulung La in Arunachal Pradesh along the de-facto border between the two countries.
An unspecified number of Chinese troops were also killed in the clashes. Although China remained tight-lipped about its casualties, Indian and US intelligence claimed that 35 to 40 PLA troops were killed in the face-off.
Days after the violent face-off, China accused the Indian Army of trespassing into its territory, claiming that it was an “attempt to unilaterally change the status” of the LAC.
India strongly rejected the allegations and stressed that all its activities were carried out on its side of the border and accused China of hindering normal patrols by its troops.
Since the Galwan Valley clash, India and China have been locked in a high-altitude standoff in eastern Ladakh. The two sides held several rounds of military and diplomatic level talks in the past six months to end the stalemate but failed to achieve any breakthrough.
The border talks between the two countries gave a glimmer of hope for a possible de-escalation of tensions along the LAC in early June when the PLA began de-escalation process at several friction points. However, the Chinese troops later refused to withdraw or disengage completely from several other standoff points.
The tense border standoff between India and China also drew the attention of United States President Donald Trump who offered to mediate between the two countries to de-escalate the tension, asserting that his country is “willing to arbitrate their raging dispute”.
In September, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi reached a five-point consensus to de-escalate the border dispute at a meeting in Moscow on the sidelines of a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation(SCO) conclave. The agreement included measures like quick disengagement of troops, avoiding action that could escalate tensions, adherence to all agreements restore “peace and tranquillity” along the LAC.
India has been maintaining that the onus is on China to carry forward the process of disengagement at the friction points and defuse the ongoing tension.
