Several injured: border conflict between China and India escalates
Created: 2022-12-17 04:52
Two years ago there were still dead, now apparently only injured: The nuclear powers China and India clashed again in the Himalayas - with clubs and sticks.
Munich/New Delhi/Beijing – There have apparently been clashes in the Himalayas between China and India.
The incident happened on December 9, as Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh confirmed in Parliament in New Delhi on Tuesday.
The Indian Ministry of Defense wrote on Twitter that Chinese troops had tried to invade Indian territory in the Tawang district in the northeast Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh.
"The Chinese attempt was resolutely and resolutely repelled by our troops." There was a "fight" in which soldiers from both sides were injured.
The Chinese troops then withdrew.
According to Indian media, 200 Chinese soldiers armed with sticks and clubs were involved in the incident.
Six Indian soldiers are said to have been flown to a hospital for minor injuries.
China accused Indian soldiers of "illegally crossing" the border control line and blocking the way for regular Chinese patrols.
"Our side dealt with the situation professionally and according to the rules," the Chinese party organ
People's Daily
quoted an army spokesman as saying.
The confrontation was preceded by joint military exercises between India and the United States in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand, which borders China.
Beijing reacted angrily to the joint maneuvers.
The history of the People's Republic of China from 1949 to the present
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The situation escalated two years ago: several people died in the border conflict between China and India
Territorial disputes have strained relations between India and China for decades.
Beijing claims some 90,000 square kilometers of territory controlled by New Delhi.
In 1962, the two nuclear powers fought a brief war over the Himalayan border.
Fatal clashes broke out again in 1967.
In the early 1990s, both sides agreed not to touch the status quo until a final solution was found.
The problem, however, is that China and India each have different ideas about where the de facto border between the two states, known as the “Line of Control” (LAC), actually lies.
Indian soldier in the Tawang region (archive photo): There have been renewed clashes with Chinese troops in the Himalayan region.
© Biju Boro/AFP
The situation last escalated in the summer of 2020.
In the disputed border area, soldiers from both countries beat each other up with clubs and iron bars and threw boulders at each other.
20 Indian soldiers and an unknown number of Chinese soldiers are said to have died.
A meeting between China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his Indian counterpart, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, at the end of March this year made no progress on the border issue.
Relations between the two countries remain "not normal" and could not be as long as the situation at the China-India border remains abnormal, Jaishankar said after the meeting.
(sh/AFP/dpa)
