India and China have held useful talks and are withdrawing troops

By Boyko Nikolov

NEW DELHI, BM, ($1=74.22 Indian Rupees) – The Indian government said in a press release that coordination talks between India and China had taken place over the past two days, leading to a decision by the two countries to begin withdrawing much of their troops to the disputed Himalayan region.

BulgarianMilitary.com reminds you that last year the high-altitude border region of Ladakh became an arena of hostilities, mostly hand-to-hand combat between Indian and Chinese soldiers. However, this has led to the deployment of thousands of troops and hundreds of weapons systems from both countries.

According to authorities in New Delhi, troops in the area have been facing each other since May last year, but progress has already been made, with tensions easing significantly and a sensitive area in regional policy over the past 12 months resolved.

In 2020, tensions in Ladakh escalated. At least 20 Indian soldiers and a still unclear number of Chinese were killed in hand-to-hand combat. Tensions have forced the two countries to concentrate significant military forces, worrying the international community.

There was a time when India was ready to speed up some of its expected arms orders from France and Russia. China, for its part, is transporting hundreds of heavily armored vehicles to the area. The two countries have deteriorated sharply, and the world is worried because the two most populous nations are facing a military conflict that could escalate from regional to international. Both countries have stepped up tests of some of their new military developments, most notably in the field of missile systems.

Tensions rose again in early 2021 when an incident on January 26 could rekindle tensions between the two countries. Then India today reported new clashes between Indians and Chinese in the Naku-La Pass area. According to an Indian media source, during the hand-to-hand fight between Indians and Chinese, 20 Chinese and 4 Indians were injured, but there were no reports of deaths, which may have been the reason why the incident did not escalate into anything more.

A month later, the two countries sat down at the negotiating table and made progress, deciding in February to begin withdrawing troops from the conflict region of Pangong Tso Lake in the western Himalayas.

The Sino-Indian confrontation on the border

The stumbling block for the parties is ownership of the mountainous territories in the north of Kashmir and part of the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. This dispute became the cause of the border war in 1962, as a result of which a line of de facto control appeared in Aksaychin. Then India lost part of its lands in the Himalayas.

And although the parties entered into a settlement agreement, the claims still exist: China is still trying to control over 3.5 thousand square km in the Indian Arunachal Pradesh. India accuses Beijing of the illegal occupation of more than 43 thousand square km in Jammu and Kashmir.

Various skirmishes between Chinese and Indian border guards on the disputed land occur regularly. However, in May, they became incredibly intense due to the contingent’s buildup, first by Beijing and then by New Delhi.

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