China Reduced Troop Deployment Along LAC in 2025, Says Defence Ministry Report

New Delhi: China has significantly scaled down its military deployment along the northern borders, with the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) reducing the number of troops stationed opposite India, according to the Defence Ministry’s annual report for 2025-26.

Citing the 323-page report, the Hindustan Times reported that the PLA had 10 combined arms brigades deployed along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), while another 10 were stationed in traditional training areas away from the frontier.

The deployment translated into an estimated 40,000-50,000 Chinese troops along the LAC last year, with a similar number stationed in designated training areas.

The figures mark a reduction from the deployment seen during the prolonged India-China border standoff. Before the October 2024 disengagement agreement, China was estimated to have more than 60,000 PLA troops in the Ladakh sector alone.

The agreement to disengage from all friction points brought an end to the more than four-year-long standoff, which had pushed bilateral ties to their lowest point in six decades.

However, the report did not specify the number of PLA troops deployed along the LAC in the preceding year.

Against this backdrop of a gradual easing of military tensions along the border, Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in India on Saturday for the BRICS Summit, marking his first visit to the country in seven years.