News / India

Indian, Chinese troops disengaging from disputed Himalayan border

Thursday, 08 September 2022 5:54 PM [ Last Update: Thursday, 08 September 2022 5:54 PM ]

Indian soldiers stand near the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Arunachal Pradesh state. (File by AFP)

Indian and Chinese troops have started disengaging from the border area in the western Himalayas, two years after clashes at the frontier strained diplomatic relations.

In a statement released on Thursday, the Indian government said the disengagement was taking place in a coordinated and planned way.

An unnamed Indian defense source said "the eyeball-to-eyeball contact has ended."

Both countries still have thousands of troops lined up along the de factor border, known as the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

"The forces have disengaged. They have not been de-inducted."

"This is the first step towards a calmer LAC," the source said.

In Uzbekistan, there will be a meeting next week with the attendance of Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

There have been at least 16 rounds of meetings between senior military commanders from both countries since June 2020, when Indian and Chinese troops clashed in the Galwan area of Ladakh. At least 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers were killed in hand-to-hand fighting.

In February 2021, Chinese troops dismantled dozens of structures and moved vehicles to empty out the entire camps from the banks of the Pangong Tso lake in Ladakh.

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India and China share an un-demarcated 3,800-km border. The two countries fought a brief but bloody border war in 1962 and distrust has occasionally led to flare-ups ever since.

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Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has promised a "substantial" increase in defense spending. His ruling Liberal Democratic Party wants to double Japan's military budget to 2% of the gross domestic product over the next five years.

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