Indian and Chinese soldiers disengage over border conflict

Indian and Chinese troops have begun to disengage at the Gogra-Hotsprings, across the Indian-Chinese border in the Himalayas. This is the first de-escalation since the start of the border clashes two years ago. An Indian defence source said: "The eyeball-to-eyeball contact has ended. The forces have disengaged. They have not been de-inducted." "This is the first step towards a calmer LAC." The LAC is the border, called the Line of Actual Control. Idia also said that disengagement was taking place in a coordinated way, meaning to keep the border. Along the LAC thousands of soldiers from both countries along the 3,800 km long border. In 2021 an agreement was reached, meaning both sides had to pull back soldiers.

Next week Chinese President Xi Xinping will meet Indian Prime minister Narendra Modi in Uzbekistan.

Since June 2020 there have been 16 rounds of meetings between senior military commanders from India and China, because of the first clashes in the Galwan area of Ladakh. The clashes resulted in twenty dead dead Indian soldiers and four dead Chinese soldiers. After that India moved 50 000 soldiers along important areas of Ladakh to match Chinese number of soldiers. In the areas of Ladakh the altitude measures 4572 metres, which can be life threatening due to scarce oxygen and low temperatures.