At least three soldiers died in border clashes between China and India on Tuesday, the Indian army said, the first deaths for 53 years in the standoff between these two nuclear-armed powers.
The world’s two most populous countries are locked in territorial dispute along their mountainous 2,167-mile frontier.
No shots have been fired since 1975, with troops occasionally engaging in hand-to-hand scuffles and throwing rocks, as early reports indicated was the case Tuesday.
But experts worry that tensions are escalating between India, whose Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a friend of President Donald Trump, and an increasingly assertive China.
China and India have around 290 and 140 nuclear weapons respectively, watchdogs say.
On Tuesday, the Indian army said that one of its officers and two soldiers were killed in a “violent faceoff” in Galwan Valley, in the mountainous region of Ladakh.
Senior military officials from both sides were meeting to defuse the situation, it said.
China blamed India, whose troops it said “crossed the border for illegal activities and launched provocative attacks against Chinese personnel,” the state-run tabloid newspaper, the Global Times, said citing a foreign ministry briefing.
“The Chinese side has lodged a strong protest and solemn representation to the Indian side, urging it to strictly restrain its frontline troops according to the consensus,” it said.
Hu Xijin, the influential editor-in-chief of the Global Times, tweeted, “I want to tell the Indian side, don’t be arrogant and misread China’s restraint as being weak. China doesn’t want to have a clash with India, but we don’t fear it.”
The latest flare-up started last month, starting with more reports of rock-throwing and culminating with thousands of troops now camped either side of the Galwan Valley.
The dispute dates back to the 1860s, when British colonial rulers in India drew a border that was later disputed by China.
This flared into a conflict in 1962, when Chinese forces invaded and drove back their Indian counterparts in what is still remembered as a chastening defeat.
In the 1990s both sides signed an agreement reaffirming their promise not to use military force.
Reuters contributed to this article.
