'All-out combat' feared as India, China engage in border standoff
Indian media says thousands of Chinese troops are believed to be inside the Indian territory along the de facto border.
Indian media says thousands of Chinese troops are believed to be inside the Indian territory along the de facto border.
www.aljazeera.com
27 May 2020 ~~ By Saif Khalid
Both countries downplayed the incidents, and the issues were resolved at the local commander level, as has generally been done in the past.
But in the weeks since then, the India-China border has seen soldiers from both sides camping along several disputed areas, with each side accusing the other of trespassing.
"China is committed to safeguarding the security of its national territorial sovereignty, as well as safeguarding peace and stability in the China-India border areas," the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson said in a statement on Tuesday.
~~Snip~~
With little information shared by the two countries, media reports have speculated on the reasons behind the latest border standoff. The tension might have been triggered by infrastructure activities carried out by India along the LAC, analysts say.
In the past 10 years, India has been boosting its border infrastructure, with new roads and airbases inaugurated in remote Himalayan areas.
The border skirmishes are not new to the 3,488km (2,167-mile) frontier between India and China, most of which remains disputed and un-demarcated. But the de facto border has largely remained calm despite hundreds of skirmishes that occur every year.
Comment:
Notwithstanding the fact that historically China and India have disputed their boundaries since the 1960's. It's not the first time military tensions have broken out along the 3,500-kilometer Sino-Indian border Incidents previously occurred
"Chinese attempts to arrive at some kind understanding with India on the border dispute – unabated by persistent Indian rebuffs – continued throughout the first nine months of 1962 but ultimately failed due to Indian intransigence springing from an increasing pressure of public opinion on Nehru to take a hard line with them".
Clashes along the border previously happened in 2013 and 2014 in the Ladhak area.
This incident will also go into the history books as a dispute settled amicably
