For the past three weeks, China has been demanding that India withdraw its troops that have crossed into Chinese territory to avoid "further consequences". The Sikkim section of the China-India border, where the Indian troops trespassed on Chinese territory and have remained since June 16, was demarcated by the Convention Between Great Britain and China Relating to Sikkim and Tibet in 1890 and has been acknowledged by successive Indian governments.

The border situation has been grave for weeks and may take longer to be resolved. China's Ambassador to India Luo Zhaohui said this is the first time Indian troops have crossed the mutually recognized boundary, leading to a close-range face off between Chinese and Indian border troops, which could be potentially explosive even though over the past five decades, not a single bullet has been fired across the India-China border.

Unlike previous face-offs between the two border troops, including the one that lasted 26 days during President Xi Jinping's state visit to India in 2014, the ongoing row is not about bilateral border disputes. India said its troops trespassed on Chinese territory on behalf of Bhutan, which it said has a dispute with China over the Donglong (Doklam in Bhutanese) region.