PLA deployment declined significantly along India’s northern borders in 2025.
Indian Army remains robustly deployed and prepared for emerging contingencies.
Arunachal tensions persist, despite renewed military and diplomatic engagement between India and China.
As India and China seek to stabilise ties after years of military tensions, especially after the deadly Galwan clash in 2020, the Ministry of Defence's latest assessment points to a mixed picture along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), which highlights that Chinese troop deployment has declined significantly but adds that deployment of the Indian Army remains "robust".
The assessment assumes added significance as the MoD's Annual Report 2025-26 was released on September 13, coinciding with the conclusion of the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi.
On the same day, Chinese President Xi Jinping departed the national capital after completing his one-day visit to India — his first trip to the country in seven years. Xi had arrived on Saturday to attend the two-day BRICS Summit and held a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on its sidelines.
The Army chapter of the report says that 2025 witnessed a “significant reduction” in the deployment of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) opposite India’s northern borders.
According to the report, "the year 2025 witnessed a significant reduction in the deployment of People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Forces opposite Northern Borders, with 10 Combined Arms Brigade size forces each deployed in areas along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and in traditional training areas."
At the same time, the Indian Army has not interpreted the reduction as grounds for lowering its guard.
“The deployment of IA in all sectors along the LAC is robust, well poised and prepared to deal with any emerging contingency,” the report says.
The assessment comes nearly six years after the 2020 eastern Ladakh crisis, which dramatically transformed the military posture of both the Asian countries along the battle lines.
Although there has been a series of diplomatic, political and military engagements between the two sides in the past two years, the two sides are still locked up in a boundary question.
It is pertinent to note here that the developments in Arunachal Pradesh in recent weeks underline why the reduction in PLA deployment cannot be equated with the disappearance of border friction.
Last week, India and China held their first-ever senior military commander-level meeting in the eastern sector.
The meeting was held at the Wacha-Damai Border Personnel Meeting point in Arunachal Pradesh’s Kibithoo sector.
The meetings, which took place just days before President Xi's arrival, were confirmed by the Ministry of External Affairs and came amid reports of tension and a face-off in the Taksing sector of Arunachal Pradesh.
