China and India achieved diplomatic thaw. Now the border is flaring up

Indian authorities have confirmed a new border "face-off" between Indian and Chinese troops in Arunachal Pradesh, raising questions about the still fragile thaw in relations between New Delhi and Beijing. Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) Director General Shatrujeet Kapur sounded alarm bells across India by confirming that Indian and Chinese troops had confronted each other at several locations along the de facto border in Arunachal Pradesh state, in India's northeast.

"In the past few days, a situation arose where a face-off happened (with Chinese troops) at various locations in Arunachal and it still continues," he told reporters last month. "It may be difficult to counter China by conventional means because their PLA and BDR (Border Defense Regiment) have gone way ahead with investment and modernization," he said.

Throughout the decades, clashes along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), the de facto border, have repeatedly triggered security crises between the world's two most populous nations.