Centre says China has not intruded into Arunachal Pradesh since 1962

New Delhi: Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju on Tuesday told the Lok Sabha that China has not occupied or intruded into any part of Arunachal Pradesh since the 1962 war.

Responding to Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav’s claim of Chinese encroachment in Arunachal during a debate on Operation Sindoor, Rijiju said, “It is important to correct the record. The area China currently holds in Arunachal was already under its control either before or during the 1962 war.”

The 1962 India-China conflict was fought mainly along the disputed Aksai Chin region and the Arunachal Pradesh border. India considers Aksai Chin part of Ladakh, while China regards it as part of Xinjiang and Tibet. Beijing controls around 38,000 sq km of territory in Aksai Chin that is claimed by India.

Border tensions between the two countries flared again in June 2020 when a violent clash in Ladakh’s Galwan Valley left 20 Indian soldiers dead. China later confirmed that four of its soldiers were also killed.

Both sides subsequently deployed thousands of troops and heavy weaponry in the region. Since then, India and China have held multiple rounds of military and diplomatic talks to ease the standoff.

In October last year, the two nations announced a new patrolling arrangement along the Line of Actual Control, which led to the disengagement of troops in eastern Ladakh. The announcement came two days before Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Kazan, their first formal meeting since the border standoff began in mid-2020.