During the night of 15–16 June 2020, in the Galwan Valley on the disputed frontier between India and China, Indian troops engaged in hand-to-hand combat with soldiers from the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Both sides incurred casualties. New Delhi later acknowledged that twenty of its soldiers died, while Beijing conceded that four perished on its side. In the aftermath of the clash, India and China came closer to war than they had been for half a century. Over the next 18 months, as both countries deployed large forces into the border areas, further skirmishes took place along the disputed Line of Actual Control (LAC), including incidents in which shots were fired.