India said on Friday that the situation along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) gets disturbed whenever Chinese troops “diverge from established patrolling patterns” and reiterated its position that peace and tranquillity on the border are crucial for the overall development of bilateral ties.
External affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal made the remarks at a regular media briefing while responding to a question on comments by Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) director general Shatrujeet Kapur that face-offs with Chinese forces had occurred at several locations along the border in Arunachal Pradesh in recent days.
“In the past few days, a situation arose where face-offs occurred at several locations in Arunachal Pradesh and this still continues,” Kapur said while addressing troops at a base at Alwar in Rajasthan on Thursday. The ITBP is one of the key formations responsible for guarding sections of the LAC.
Kapur also said a new ITBP formation, the Shaurya commandos, had been mobilised during the “ongoing face-offs” with Chinese forces at multiple locations in Arunachal Pradesh. He also said the ITBP had raised drone platoons for all border units and prepared a new “strike course” to handle battles like the one with Chinese forces in Galwan Valley in 2020.
Jaiswal did not directly refer to Kapur’s comments but acknowledged that Chinese forces moving away from patrolling patterns established by the two sides was the main reason for the situation along the LAC being disturbed.
“As we have noted in the past, the situation in the India-China border areas gets disturbed from time to time when Chinese forces diverge from established patrolling patterns,” he said. “I would also like to emphasise that the maintenance of peace and tranquillity in the border areas is essential for the overall development of bilateral relations.”
India and China were using existing diplomatic and military mechanisms to “resolve outstanding issues and avoid misunderstanding and miscalculation” along the LAC, Jaiswal said. The two sides had agreed to discuss ways to “improve understanding of [the] LAC in appropriate areas for better border management”, he said, without going into details.
HT had earlier reported that tensions had erupted between the Indian Army and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) at Taksing, a remote area of Arunachal Pradesh’s Upper Subansiri district, in July and August. There were reports of several face-offs during this period.
India and China held the first round of talks between military commanders in the eastern sector in Arunachal Pradesh on September 6 and 7, days before Chinese President Xi Jinping travelled to India after seven years to attend the Brics Summit on September 12-13.
While Xi and Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomed “steady progress” in bilateral relations during a meeting on the margins of the summit, the Indian side emphasised that peace and tranquillity in the border areas would be the “essential basis” for developing ties with China. Modi also emphasised that both sides should “observe existing agreements and understandings on border related issues”.
On the other hand, Xi argued that the two sides should adopt “a dual-track approach to bilateral relations and border issues”.
The reports of tensions in Arunachal Pradesh have come at a time when the two countries are engaged in the delicate task of rebuilding bilateral ties, which fell to their lowest point in six decades because of a military standoff in Ladakh that began in April-May 2020 and ended when the two sides reached an understanding in October 2024.
Besides the situation on the LAC, India has grappled with several other issues in its ties with China, including restrictions on the export of heavy machinery such as tunnel boring machines, the lack of predictable access to Chinese markets, a ballooning trade deficit and curbs on visas for the business community.