NEW DELHI, December 20. /TASS/. India has deployed more troops on the border with China than ever before, Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said, the Indian Express reported on Tuesday.

"Today we have a deployment of the Indian Army on the China border that we have never had. It is done in order to counter Chinese deployment which was scaled up massively since 2020," Jaishankar was quoted as saying.

Jaishankar was responding to criticism from the opposition Indian National Congress party, which had accused the government of failing to take any action on the border with China.

According to Jaishankar, "I am saying that it is the obligation of the Indian state and that is the duty and commitment of the Indian military that we will not let any country, and in this case China, change the Line of Actual Control unilaterally." The line separates two countries that don’t have a defined border.

Earlier, the ANI news service reported, citing sources, that Indian and Chinese forces clashed on the border in the Tawang sector on December 9. According to the report, Chinese troops approached the LAN but were stopped by Indian forces. Several servicemen from both sides sustained wounds. The Indian defense minister later confirmed China’s People’s Liberation Army sought to change the status quo by invading the Tawang sector near the LAN. He said the Chinese were asked through diplomatic channels to maintain peace along the border.

In May 2020, clashes between the countries on the border in the mountainous area of Ladakh caused casualties on both sides. India and China deployed heavy artillery, tanks and aviation to the area. Military and diplomatic talks followed, and Beijing and New Delhi started to withdraw forces from the border last year.

Poorly defined border between India and China in the Himalayas has caused tensions for decades. In 1959 India said China annexed a part of the Arunachal Pradesh state. In 1962 an armed conflict between the countries broke out, which resulted in China taking control of about 38,000 thousand square meters of Indian territory in Ladakh and Aksai Chin.