India’s response suggested New Delhi’s reading of the events differed greatly.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh also hit back at Li’s comments, saying the violation of bilateral agreements at the LAC had “eroded the entire basis of bilateral relations” and called for LAC-related issues to be resolved according to “existing bilateral agreements and commitments”.

According to Sameer Patil, a senior fellow at the Delhi-based Observer Research Foundation think tank, there is an increasing “disconnect” between China and India.

“Even the ministerial meetings between the two sides are pointing to more divergence and dissonance rather than any convergence on issues,” he said.

BR Deepak, a professor of Chinese and China Studies at Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University, agreed and pointed to the lack of a resolution in the border stand-off as the reason for the increasing divergence.

“India’s concern is that the situation along the LAC in the western sector is not normal, as more than 100,000 troops remain deployed there from both the sides, even if both sides have been able to resolve most of the friction points through corps commander-level meetings,” Deepak said.

“China, on the other hand, wishes India to accept this new modus vivendi and normalise relations in various other domains.”

Is latest China-India border clash the start of increased violence to come?

Amrita Jash, an assistant professor of geopolitics and international relations at the Manipal Academy of Higher Education, said a resolution to the stand-off was unlikely because the two countries’ positions were “completely contrary” to each other.

“India wants status quo ante along the LAC, as it existed before May 2020, whereas China insists that there is no [border] dispute at all,” Jash said.

That wasn’t how it started out. In the months after the stand-off erupted, both countries admitted there had been problems at the border, often even trading charges over who was responsible. This has changed, however, Jash said.

Beijing has recently tried to play down the border stand-off, with Li insisting during his meeting with Singh that both sides must “place the border issue in an appropriate position in bilateral relations” so as to take “a long-term view”.

Delhi, Jash said, was unlikely to accept this. “India’s stance has only gotten firmer over the last three years.”

The country’s hardening stance has been further fuelled by China’s recent attempts to assert itself in the region even as tensions simmer along the border.

Qin, the Chinese foreign minister, recently held talks with Pakistan President Arif Alvi and army chief Asim Munir, saying that Beijing was ready to “strengthen military exchanges and defence cooperation” with Islamabad, Delhi’s arch-rival.

China has stepped up its presence in Bangladesh, with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurating the country’s first submarine base, built with Chinese help, in March this year.

Beijing has also been in active negotiations with Bhutan to settle a decades-old border dispute.

India issued a strenuous objection. “This is not the first time China has made such an attempt. We reject this outright. Arunachal Pradesh is, has been, and will always be an integral and inalienable part of India,” said Arindam Bagchi, spokesman for the Ministry of External Affairs.

Two years on, what progress has been made in the China-India border stand-off?

“Since the lines of communication are open and bilateral and multilateral engagements on the rise, there is likely to be an agreement on the disengagement sooner than later before [Chinese President] Xi Jinping’s possible visit to India later this year,” he said.

Rakesh Sharma, a retired lieutenant general who commanded India’s northern army in the Ladakh region, did not share Deepak’s optimism, predicting Chinese troops would aim to encroach further on Indian territory along the border by taking advantage of the increased mobility afforded by the ice melting along the Karakoram mountain range in the summer.

“Another summer of discontent seems to be in the offing,” Sharma said, noting that the lack of a clear resolution, coupled with diplomatic tensions, could lead to fresh hostilities between troops from both sides.

The creation of “buffer areas” between the two sides had diluted Indian control over areas they had been patrolling since the 1980s, such as Depsang, Sharma said.

“India is not able to dominate and patrol the areas it used to, before May 2020, even in areas where the stand-off has been resolved,” he said, suggesting this could be why China was reluctant to come to a definitive resolution.

To prevent China from further encroaching on its territory, India “will have to deploy troops on forward-most positions”, but such a move could further stir hostilities between the neighbours, Sharma said.

“There are no guarantees about what could happen in the next three to four months.”