China
In 2020, India and China have been involved in an international armed conflict over the control of two main regions, namely Aksai Chin and Arunachal Pradesh, and a number of smaller regions along the Sino-Indian border.
India and China have been involved in an international armed conflict over the control of two main regions: Arunachal Pradesh and Aksai Chin, which is considered as part of Xingjian and Tibet by China, while according to India it is part of Ladakh.
On 17 June 2020, for the first time in 45 years, clashes between Indian and Chinese soldiers have been registered along the Himalaya border between the two countries. Twenty members of the Indian troops lost their lives and casualties have been registered among Chinese soldiers as well. M. Safi and H. Ellis-Petersen, ‘India says 20 soldiers killed on disputed Himalayan border with China’, The Guardian, 17 June 2020.
In September 2020, the situation did not deescalate, and new armed confrontations took place between the two countries. On September 2 Indian forces took control of a strategic outpost. Specifically, it has been reported that ‘thousands of soldiers climbed up mountain peaks for about six hours to claim the vantage points along the south bank of Pangong Tso – a glacial lake roughly the size of Singapore.’ S. R. Sen and R. Chaudhary, ‘India Captured Strategic Outposts in Stealth Move Against China’, Bloomberg, 2 September 2020; A. Panda, ‘India-China Tensions Spike in the Himalayas’, The Diplomat, 5 September 2020.
