(March 28): As ties between Washington and Beijing worsen, border tensions between India and China could spiral into a bigger conflict, the South Asian nation’s army chief warned.

Contested borders and boundary transgressions “remain a potential trigger for escalation,” General Manoj Pande said. Bilateral ties between the two nations “do stand influenced by the great power rivalry currently playing out between China and the US.”

Pande who was speaking at the Savitribai Phule University in the western Indian city of Pune on Monday is the first official to draw a link between the growing rivalry between the US and China and a potential deterioration of already tense ties between the Asian neighbours.

New Delhi and Washington, along with Japan and Australia are members of the so called Quad grouping seen as a counter to China’s growing assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific. Beijing has criticised the group as a “clique” that could stoke a new Cold War.

US and China ties have been sliding over Russia’s war in Ukraine. While the US is leading allies to isolate and punish Vladimir Putin, China has stood by Moscow. Chinese President Xi Jinping recently visited Russia where the two countries agreed on greater cooperation.

India and China share a 3,488 kilometer-long (2,167 mile) disputed Himalayan border. The two are locked in a border conflict — the worst in four decades — for the last two years with soldiers on both sides killed in one clash in June 2020. Both sides have mobilised thousands of troops, artillery guns and fighter aircraft.

The two sides have had 17 rounds of diplomatic and military talks to resolve the border crisis but have had incremental success.