India and China were easing tensions - then a border official spoke out

Experts say Kapur's remarks offer a rare glimpse into what they describe as China's increasingly assertive military posture along the disputed frontier.

"This pattern of Chinese probing at various points of the Arunachal Pradesh border has been happening for some time," Shyam Saran, a former Indian foreign secretary who led several rounds of border talks with China in the mid-2000s, told the BBC.

He said such actions were "not enough to result in an immediate war, but enough to sort of create new facts on the ground".

Indian opposition parties have long accused China of extending its presence in both Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh, leading to tensions.

Zhou Bo, a retired senior colonel in China's People's Liberation Army who is now associated with Tsinghua University in Beijing, said both countries had learnt lessons from the 2020 Galwan clashes.

"The two sides should be more careful to avoid this kind of thing from happening in the future," he said, adding that Chinese media had not reported on the latest stand-offs in Arunachal Pradesh.

India and China's tensions also come against the backdrop of a complicated economic relationship.

Despite their differences, the countries remain major trading partners, with bilateral trade, external reaching $151bn last year. But the balance is heavily tilted in Beijing's favour, with Chinese exports to India accounting for about $131bn.

India continues to rely on Chinese imports for machinery, rare earth magnets, electric vehicle batteries and pharmaceutical products.

This dependence means tensions with Beijing can have consequences well beyond the border, particularly for Indian industries and infrastructure projects.