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The high roads to border conflict through India and China
- The neighbours have once again pulled back after clashes in the Himalayas over infrastructure construction
- The skirmishes are part of a long line that date back decades and could come back to life again
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Another year and another border clash between China and India has been defused.
This time troops in the Himalayas withdrew after senior military officers met for talks to smooth over skirmishes in May at a number of points along their unofficial border, the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
The clashes were triggered by India’s construction of a road in the Galwan River valley, an area bounded by Indian-controlled Ladakh on one side and Chinese-administered Aksai Chin on the other.
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But while the troops have retreated for now, the decades of road building along the 3,500km (2,200-mile) border has not stopped, making further confrontation likely, according to an observer.
02:19
China-India border dispute fuelled by rise in nationalism on both sides
China-India border dispute fuelled by rise in nationalism on both sides
The conflicts go back decades and escalated into a brief war in 1962 after China started building the Xinjiang-Tibet Road in 1959 through Aksai Chin to directly connect its two far western regions.
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