India masses its ARMY to its disputed border with China after clashes with Xi Jinping’s forces

India has started massing troops along its disputed border with China after a clash between soldiers of the two nuclear-armed superpowers occurred earlier this month.

Indian foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said an unprecedented number of troops will be deployed along the 2,100-mile border with China.

Less than two weeks ago an ‘encroachment’ by Chinese soldiers sparked fears of war by causing a skirmish with Indian troops.

The new incident on December 9, which followed recent joint US-India military exercises near the border, led to ‘minor injuries to (a) few personnel from both sides’, one source said.

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India has started gathering thousands of troops along its disputed border with China after a skirmish between forces this month (pictured: a clash between forces in 2021)

A map shows the disputed border and locations of clashes between India and China

Relations have been at rock-bottom between the two nations since a clash left 20 Indian soldiers and at least four Chinese troops dead on their high-altitude frontier in June 2020.

‘Today we have a deployment of the Indian army on the China border that we have never had. It is done in order to counter Chinese deployment, which has been scaled up massively since 2020,’ Jaishankar said in Delhi on Monday.

India said that the encounter began due to ‘encroachment’ by Chinese troops, while China’s foreign ministry said the situation on the border was ‘generally stable’, the BBC reported.

The dispute occurs along a 2,100 mile long de facto border, called the Line of Actual Control.

Indian foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar (pictured) said an unprecedented number of troops are being deployed along the 2,100-mile border with China

A view of the road on the way to the Line of Actual Control, at the India-China Border in Tawang, in the northeastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh

Indian and Chinese soldiers come face to face and sometimes end up fighting – but with hand-to-hand combat or sticks and stones.

This is due to an agreement signed between the two countries in 1996 which states that neither side will use firearms within 2km (1.2 miles) of the border region known as the Line of Actual Control. 

The latest skirmish occurred on the disputed Himalayan border and followed recent joint US-India military exercises near the border.

Chinese soldiers came close to the area near the Line of Actual Control, where it had been agreed that neither side would patrol, sources said.

This move was ‘contested by… (Indian) troops in a firm and resolute manner’, one source said.

After the skirmish both sides ‘immediately disengaged from the area’.

An Indian commander later held a meeting with a Chinese counterpart ‘to discuss the issue in accordance with structured mechanisms to restore peace and tranquility’.

The incident took place in the Tawang Sector of the northeastern Indian state Arunachal Pradesh, all of which is claimed by China. Beijing refers to the area as South Tibet.