India says its forces have clashed with Chinese troops in a disputed area along the border, the first such clash in more than a year.
The countries had been working to ease tensions since a major clash in 2020 killed at least 24 soldiers.
But on Monday, the Indian Army said there had been a clash last Friday in the Tawang sector of Arunachal Pradesh state, India’s eastern tip.
A few soldiers from both sides suffered minor injuries.
China has not yet commented on this position. But JEE News reported an Indian military source as saying that at least six Indian soldiers were injured.
“Both sides immediately withdrew from the area,” the Indian Army said.
It added that commanders from both sides held a meeting shortly after “restoration of peace and order”.
India’s Defense Minister Rajnath Singh told parliament on Tuesday that no Indian soldiers were “injured or seriously injured” in the clash and that the incident had been “taken up at a diplomatic level”.
“Due to the timely intervention of Indian military commanders, the PLA soldiers retreated to their positions,” he added.
China and India share a 3,440 km (2,100 mi) long de facto border – known as the Line of Actual Control, or LAC – which is poorly demarcated. The presence of rivers, lakes and ice caps means that the line can change. Soldiers from both sides – representing the world’s two largest armies – face off at several points.
Tension sometimes escalates into clashes. However, both sides have been trying to defuse tensions since a major battle further west in Galwan Valley in Ladakh region in June 2020 – where 20 Indian soldiers and at least four Chinese soldiers were killed.
That battle — fought with sticks and clubs, not guns — was the first deadly encounter between the two sides in the area in 45 years.
Another face-off in January 2021 left soldiers from both sides injured. It happened along the border between China and India’s Sikkim state, which is sandwiched between Bhutan and Nepal.
In September, the two countries agreed to withdraw from a disputed area along a remote western Himalayan border region, after which both sides began withdrawing troops.
