India has described incidents along its disputed border with China as “most serious”, warning that the condition of the frontier will directly affect the wider relationship between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.
The Ministry of External Affairs made the remarks on Tuesday in response to questions about a fresh military face-off along the contested border. During the ministry’s biweekly briefing, spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal did not deny that a new border incident had occurred, but declined to provide further details.
Jaiswal said India had reiterated its position during an August meeting of a joint military and diplomatic working committee dealing with border affairs between the two countries. He stressed that maintaining peace and tranquillity along the frontier remained essential to the broader development of bilateral relations.
“India again underlined that peace and tranquility in the border areas is essential for the overall development of bilateral ties,” Jaiswal said.
He added that both sides had agreed to continue using existing diplomatic and military channels to deal with unresolved issues and prevent “misunderstanding and miscalculation” along the disputed frontier.
The Indian Ministry of Defence and the army did not respond to requests for comment.
The latest remarks follow reports on social media alleging increased Chinese activity in Arunachal Pradesh, the Indian border state claimed by Beijing. Indian content creators have circulated videos making such claims, although the reports could not be independently verified.
The timing of the statements is particularly significant as India and China attempt to stabilise relations after years of military tensions. Officials from both countries met in New Delhi several days before the foreign ministry briefing, while Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to visit India for a BRICS summit hosted by New Delhi.
The summit will bring together Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa as India holds the rotating chair of the grouping of emerging economies.
India’s warning nevertheless points to the limits of the recent improvement in relations. While New Delhi has signalled a willingness to deepen engagement with Beijing, it is also making clear that progress will remain closely tied to stability along the disputed frontier.
China and India share a 3,488-kilometre unmarked border, which has remained one of the most sensitive issues between the two countries. Disputes over the frontier have intensified in recent years, culminating in a June 2020 clash in which soldiers from both sides were killed.
The confrontation severely damaged bilateral relations and led to a prolonged military stand-off. Since then, the two governments have gradually worked to reduce tensions through diplomatic and military channels.
A meeting between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Xi in Tianjin last August signalled a thaw in relations and raised hopes that the two countries could move beyond the confrontation that began in 2020.
The latest border concerns, however, demonstrate how fragile that improvement remains. India’s position is that stability on the frontier is not a separate issue from the wider relationship but a basic condition for its continued recovery.
With high-level diplomatic engagement expected to continue, the handling of incidents along the disputed border is likely to remain central to whether the recent rapprochement develops into a more durable improvement in India-China relations.
