India, China troops scuffle along disputed border: Indian army

Some 150 soldiers engaged in heated exchanges of words and blows after encountering each other at Naku La sector in the northeastern Indian state of Sikkim on Saturday, according to the Indian army.

“Aggressive behavior by the two sides resulted in minor injuries to troops,” Mandeep Hooda, a spokesman for the Indian army eastern command, said on Sunday.

“It was stone-throwing and arguments that ended in a fistfight,” he added.

The scuffle was later resolved with “dialog and interaction” at a local level, according to Hooda.

“Temporary and short-duration face-offs between border-guarding troops do occur as boundaries are not resolved,” he added.

In another incident on Sunday morning, border troops “became physical” with each other in the northwestern Indian region of Ladakh, according to local sources.

There have been numerous cross-border stand-offs between Indian and Chinese soldiers, including one in Ladakh, which occurred after the Indian army sent troops to stop the construction of a road by China back in 2017.

After a two-month standoff, troops from both sides withdrew and the countries sought to resolve tensions.

Since then, the 3,500-kilometer border between the two nuclear powers had remained calm. Relations also appeared to improve between Beijing and New Delhi after President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met in the Chinese city of Wuhan in 2018.

The two countries fought a bitter war over the border region of Arunachal Pradesh in 1962.