The Indian military said Monday (Oct. 19) that it arrested a Chinese soldier after he got lost and crossed the border into the western Himalayas, which India effectively controls, and will send him back to China. Both sides have stepped up their military deployments after bloody clashes erupted along the disputed Ladakh border in June this year.
The Indian military said in a statement that the PLA soldier was detained by Indian troops in the Demchok area east of Ladakh and that he would be sent back to China after completing established procedures.
The statement also said they provided medical assistance to the soldier, including oxygen, food, and warm clothing to protect him from the harsh conditions at high altitudes.
Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of the Global Times, a division of the Communist Party’s mouthpiece People’s Daily, confirmed the news in a Weibo post Monday evening. He said that a Chinese soldier was indeed detained by the Indian side, but the matter is not complicated and is most likely due to getting lost. He said that China and India are communicating on the matter, and the Indian side has a more positive attitude, and the two sides have previous agreements on the matter. He also said that the latest Indian media reports say that the Indian side will return the lost Chinese soldier to the Chinese side at the Chushul Mordo meeting point.
In June this year, Chinese and Indian troops clashed in Ladakh, killing 20 Indian soldiers, while the Chinese side has not released the death toll of Chinese soldiers. After this incident, the two countries deployed tens of thousands of troops in the conflict zone, backed by artillery, tanks, and fighter jets.
Since then, the Sino-Indian border conflict has escalated. Early last month, Indian media reported that the situation in the Chushul region was tense and that Chinese troops were within range of Indian soldiers. The Global Times reported the news under the headline “Indian media clamor. Subsequently, on September 7, gunfire was heard near Pangong Tso, a disputed western section of the border between China and India, and India and China accused each other of firing warning shots in the air.
Senior Indian and Chinese military commanders have held numerous talks to defuse the standoff. The two foreign ministers met in Moscow on September 10 and agreed on five points, but did not reach consensus on the key issue of troop withdrawal.
The Chinese and Indian military commanders issued a statement on September 22, following the negotiations, agreeing not to send additional troops to the disputed border area in the recently rapidly militarized Ladakh region. While there was some progress in this negotiation, the statement did not mention any breakthrough on the troop withdrawals to which both sides had previously committed.
The most recent consultation between the two sides was the seventh round of Sino-Indian talks on October 13. In this joint statement, the two sides said that the two military commanders had positive and constructive discussions to resolve the months-long standoff on the disputed border.
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