India is calling up additional troops more than a week after a clash with Chinese forces along its disputed border that resulted in minor injuries on both sides.
Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said the deployment of more military personnel in Arunachal Pradesh state is to ensure Beijing doesn’t try to “unilaterally change” the status quo along the 2,100-mile-long border, known as the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
“You have a deployment of the Indian Army on [the] China border that we never had. It is done to counter Chinese aggression,” Mr. Jaishankar said this week, according to the BBC.
India said the Dec. 9 dispute occurred after Chinese troops illegally crossed the LAC. It is the most serious dispute between the two nuclear-armed neighbors since clashes in June 2020 resulted in the deaths of 20 Indian soldiers and at least four Chinese troops.
Both countries have been trying to de-escalate tensions along the LAC since then.
Leaders of India’s main opposition Congress Party have criticized the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s government over its handling of the border dispute, calling their response “weak kneed.”