In this Sept. 14, 2017 file photo, Pangong Lake is seen near the India-China border in the Ladakh area of India. (AP Photo / Manish Swarup, file)
This comes two days after the defense ministers of India and China met in Moscow, and two days before the scheduled meeting between the foreign ministers.
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The People’s Liberation Army accused the Indian Army late Monday of “illegally crossing the Royal Line of Control at the edge of the God Pao Mountain area.” There was no immediate response from India. However, the news agency AND ME, citing his sources, he claimed that there was a “shooting incident” in which the two troops have been fighting for more than three months.
This comes two days after the defense ministers of India and China met in Moscow, and two days before the scheduled meeting between the foreign ministers. “These are serious military provocations … of a very bad nature,” said PLA Western Theater Command spokesman Col Zhang Shuili.
Shuili, in a statement published by the army’s official news website early Tuesday, said that Chinese border guards took “countermeasures” to stabilize the situation. The statement did not make clear what those measures were or whether Chinese troops also fired warning shots.
Both sides have observed a long-standing protocol to prevent the use of firearms along the sensitive high-altitude border that runs through the western Himalayas, although this agreement has prevented casualties.
Twenty Indian soldiers were killed in close combat in a clash in June, an incident that prompted China and India to deploy additional forces along the border.
“We call on the Indian side to immediately stop the dangerous actions … and strictly investigate and punish the personnel who shot to ensure that similar incidents are not repeated,” Shuili said.
Troops from India and China recently participated in two fierce clashes in eastern Ladakh and near the Naku La pass in northern Sikkim, leaving several soldiers on both sides wounded.
In the first incident, dozens of Indian and Chinese army personnel clashed along the northern shore of Lake Pangong in eastern Ladakh in the late afternoon of May 5, and the clash ended the following morning after a dialogue between the two parties.
Several soldiers from both sides suffered minor injuries when they exchanged blows and resorted to throwing stones, the sources said, adding that around 200 staff members participated in the clash. Both sides brought in additional troops after the fight.
It was the first case of troops from both sides exchanging blows after a similar incident occurred around Pangong Lake in August 2017.
In another incident, about 150 Indian and Chinese servicemen took part in a clash near Naku La Pass in the Sikkim sector of the China-India border in which at least 10 soldiers were injured.
Troops from India and China participated in a 73-day standoff at the Doklam crossing in 2017, prompting fears of a war between the two neighbors. The border dispute between India and China covers the 3,488-kilometer-long Royal Line of Control, the de facto border between the two countries.
Both parties have been affirming that, pending the final resolution of the border problem, it is necessary to maintain peace and tranquility in the border areas.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping held their first informal summit in April 2018 in the Chinese city of Wuhan, months after the Doklam clash.
During the summit, the two leaders decided to issue a “strategic guide” to their armies to strengthen communications so that they can build trust and understanding. Modi and Xi held their second informal summit in Mamallapuram, near Chennai, in October last year, with the aim of further expanding bilateral ties.
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