Indian soldiers injured in boat incident with Chinese army

LEH, India – Chinese and Indian army boats collided on a lake in an area of Kashmir claimed by both countries, injuring some Indian soldiers, but the incident has been settled, Indian officials said Thursday.

The collision occurred Wednesday because of different perceptions of the disputed border in the Ladakh region, an Indian army officer said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

He said army delegations from the two sides met later in the day and settled the incident and withdrew the troops. No other details were immediately available.

Indian External Affairs Ministry spokesman Raveesh Kumar said in New Delhi that the matter has been resolved.

The countries went to war in 1962 over their disputed border and their armed forces engaged in a 10-week standoff in the neighbouring state of Bhutan in 2017.

Occasional skirmishes occur because of unmarked areas of their border.

Indian and Chinese officials have been holding talks since 1980s to settle their boundary dispute and plan another round of talks in coming months.

China claims about 90,000 square kilometres (35,000 square miles) of territory in India’s northeast, while India says China occupies 38,000 square kilometres (15,000 square miles) of its territory in the Aksai Chin plateau in the western Himalayas, including the Ladakh region.