A tunnel constructed high in the mountains of northeastern India has become the latest flashpoint in a simmering border dispute between New Delhi and Beijing.
The Sela Tunnel, inaugurated by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier this month, has been hailed in India as a feat of engineering – blasted through the Himalayas at an elevation of some 13,000 feet (3,900 meters) – and a boon for the military, enabling faster, "all-weather" access to a tense de facto border with China.
That's caught the attention of Beijing, whose long-running dispute with New Delhi over their contested 2,100-mile (3,379-kilometer) border has seen the two nuclear-armed powers clash in recent years.
That includes in 2020 when hand-to-hand fighting between the two sides resulted in the deaths of at least 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers in Aksai Chin-Ladakh in the western stretches of the border.
And, decades ago, the dispute led to war.
China also claims the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, where the tunnel was constructed, as its own, even as the area has long functioned as Indian territory.
Chinese officials in recent days have slammed the tunnel project and Modi's visit to the state, accusing New Delhi of taking steps to undermine peace along the border.
"We require the Indian side to cease any action that may complicate the boundary question … the Chinese military remains highly vigilant and will resolutely defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity," a Defense Ministry spokesperson said last week, using the Chinese name "Zangnan" or South Tibet to refer to Arunachal Pradesh.
India hit back on Tuesday, slamming Beijing's "absurd claims" and saying the area "is and will always be an integral and inalienable part of India."
The US State Department also weighed in during a news conference Wednesday backing India's sovereignty over Arunachal Pradesh and voicing strong opposition to "any unilateral attempts to advance territorial claims by incursions or encroachments" across the line of actual control (LAC), or de facto border.
Beijing hit back at this too, accusing Washington of sparing "no efforts to provoke and take advantage of other countries' conflicts to serve its selfish geopolitical interests."
The spat – which underscores the deep tensions undergirding the relationship between Asia's two largest countries – comes as India is weeks away from national elections expected to deliver a resounding endorsement of Modi's Hindu nationalist platform.
Rising nationalism under Modi has come alongside a similar phenomenon in China, where leader Xi Jinping has overseen an assertive foreign policy – though both sides have appeared to take steps to cool border tensions following the deadly 2020 clash.
Modi on Friday also traveled to Bhutan for a trip "aimed at further cementing the India-Bhutan partnership," he wrote on social media platform X. The remote Himalayan country bordering Arunachal Pradesh too has a contested border with China, and New Delhi has been wary of a potential settlement between leaders there and in China over that dispute.
Keep reading about the entrenched dispute.
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