NEW DELHI: Indian and Chinese soldiers exchanged boxes of sweets on Thursday at two points on their disputed high-altitude border, a week after the leaders of the Asian rivals held a rare meeting.
An Indian army official who was not authorized to speak to reporters confirmed that “sweets were exchanged between Indian and Chinese troops at several border points on the occasion of Diwali.”
India’s defense minister, Rajnath Singh, said Thursday that “New Delhi’s efforts will be to move the issue beyond disengagement,” but added that “we will have to wait a little longer.” Press Trust of India The news agency quoted him.
Photos released by the Indian army show soldiers shaking hands and handing out gift-wrapped candy boxes in the rugged frozen mountains of Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh to mark India’s Hindu festival of lights, Diwali.
China and India, the world’s two most populous nations, are fierce rivals and have accused each other of trying to seize territory along their unofficial divide, known as the Line of Actual Control.
However, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met on the sidelines of a BRICS meeting in Russia on October 23, the pair’s first official meeting in five years.
In their meeting, Xi said they should “strengthen communication and cooperation”, while Modi said “mutual trust” will guide ties with China.
It signaled a possible thaw between the nuclear-armed neighbors after clashes between their troops in 2020 along their border that killed at least 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers.
After the 2020 conflicts, more than 20 rounds of military talks were held.
Both sides withdrew tens of thousands of troops and agreed not to send patrols along a narrow separation strip.
But two important points remained with troops and tanks on both sides facing each other.
On Oct. 21, days before Xi and Modi met, an agreement was reached to withdraw a few hundred troops deployed to forward positions, a term dubbed “de-engagement,” and to resume military patrols.
India is wary of its northern neighbor and disputes over its 3,500km border are a perennial source of tension.
China claims all of India’s northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, considering it part of Tibet, and the two fought a border war in 1962.
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