Sikkim standoff: India, China quietly resolve to settle border dispute

India's ambassador to Beijing is leading the effort to find a way for both sides to back down

When Chinese President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi met on the sidelines of a regional conference last month, officials said they reached an understanding not to let the two countries' long-standing "differences become disputes".

Yet within days, Chinese and Indian soldiers were jostling in a desolate but disputed border region in the Himalayas that has since grown into an eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation from which neither army is ready to back off.

The flare-up is the latest incident in a steadily deteriorating relationship between the Asian giants who are unable to agree on their 3,500 km (2,175 miles) border, over which they