India will not reduce troops along China border in winter, army chief says

NEW DELHI - India is not looking to reduce the number of troops along its northern frontier in winter, the country’s army chief said on Jan 13, adding that it will review summer deployment based on the outcome of negotiations with China.

Four years ago,

20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers were killed during border clashes,

following which both sides stopped patrolling several points on the border in Ladakh to avoid new confrontations, while moving tens of thousands of new troops and military equipment closer to the freezing mountainous region.

New Delhi and Beijing reached a deal in October 2024

to resolve the four-year military stand-off, and a few days later they pulled back troops from the disputed border.

“During winter deployment, the number of troops comes down. So therefore, at least in the winter strategy, we are not looking forward to any reduction of troops,” army chief Upendra Dwivedi told reporters in New Delhi.

General Dwivedi said a decision on summer deployment would depend on how negotiations with China progress.

“When it comes to the summer strategy, we’ll take a review based on that time, how many negotiations and meetings have taken place,” he said.

India and China share a poorly demarcated border which runs along the Himalayas and has been a source of tension between the neighbours for decades, including a brief but bloody war in 1962.

Ties stabilised after diplomatic talks and a series of pacts were reached from 1991 and trade and business links boomed until they were disrupted by the clashes in the summer of 2020.
REUTERS