- Indian and Chinese troops have started pulling out of the Gogra-Hotsprings border region.
- The disengagement is intended to maintain calm along the Line of Actual Control.
- Tensions between the two countries began after hand-to-hand combat in Ladakh in June 2020.
Two years after border battles strained diplomatic relations, Indian and Chinese forces have started withdrawing from the Gogra-Hotsprings border region in the western Himalayas, the Indian government announced Thursday.
The announcement comes ahead of a summit that Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi are anticipated to attend next week in Uzbekistan.
India said that the disengagement was planned and coordinated and was intended to maintain border calm.
Calls and emails to the Chinese embassy in New Delhi were not immediately returned.
The 3,800 kilometre (2,360 mile) boundary between India and China is unmarked, and in the past, the military there followed established procedures to refrain from using any weapons on the frontier.
Since Indian and Chinese troops engaged in combat in the Galwan region of Ladakh in June 2020, senior military chiefs from the two nations have met 16 times.
Hand-to-hand combat resulted in the deaths of at least 20 Indian soldiers and four Chinese soldiers, sharply escalating tensions between the Asian superpowers.
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