New Delhi/IBNS: India has denied any link between Air Force exercises in the eastern region and the recent clashes with the Chinese army in Tawang, media reports said.

The Indian Air Force has said the Eastern Air Command said the exercise to train its crew in the northeast of India was planned much earlier than the recent clashes in the region.

The exercises come amid fresh border tensions and the IAF had to rush its fighter jets in the region two or three times in the past few weeks, NDTV reported.

The latest skirmish in Arunachal Pradesh’s Tawang in midst of the Himalayas was the first reported clash between the two countries since Galwan clash in Ladakh valley in 2020, when 20 Indian and at least four Chinese soldiers were killed.

On December 9, the Indian soldiers stopped the Chinese troops from entering Indian territory using sticks and other weapons, but no guns, which led to injuries on both sides, Defence Minister Rajmath Singh told Parliament earlier this week.

However, China claimed that Indian soldiers illegally crossed the de-facto border to stop a routine patrol by its troops.

“On December 9, there was a physical fight between the two sides but Indian soldiers ‘compelled the Chinese soldiers to return to their posts’, pushing back in a ‘firm and resolute manner,’” Rajnath Singh has said.