The Ministry of Defence’s latest assessment says China has reduced its troop deployment along the disputed Line of Actual Control (LAC) during 2025.The Ministry of Defence uploaded the Annual Report 2025-26 on its website earlier this week. It explains China’s military posture under the assessment of ‘Situation along Northern Front’.The report states: “The year 2025 witnessed a significant reduction in the deployment of People’s Liberation Army (PLA) forces opposite the northern borders, with 10 combined-arms brigade-size forces each (that were) deployed in areas along the LAC and in traditional training areas”. Sources said it indicated withdrawal of these brigades from the LAC.Western analysts estimate that a PLA combined-arms brigade comprises around 5,000 personnel. With 10 such brigades each being reduced, along the “LAC” and the “training areas”, that makes it 50,000 fewer troops at each of these locations.This does not mean, that the Chinese threat at the LAC is gone. An assessment on China by the US Department of War in November 2024 had said the PLA had deployed 1.20 lakh troops only along the LAC and that more than 20 combined-arms brigades remained in forward locations across the western, middle and eastern sectors of the LAC.The sources said China continues to maintain substantial deployments of troops, missiles, air-defence systems and tanks along the LAC.On India’s readiness along the LAC, the MoD said, “The Army’s deployment in all sectors along the LAC is robust, well poised and prepared to deal with any emerging contingency.”The sources said India needs to maintain troop levels exceeding the Chinese deployment along the LAC because the terrain on the Chinese side is largely a flat plateau, allowing rapid movement.The MoD report credited bilateral interactions between India and China at political, diplomatic and military levels to have “facilitated positive developments along the northern border”. The bilateral interactions post October 2024 have included three meetings between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping.In August, Special Representatives of India and China — National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi — met in Beijing and agreed to continue efforts towards a “political settlement” of the boundary dispute in line with the long-term interests of both countries.Meanwhile, the report also touched upon how the Border Roads Organisation continued to strengthen all-weather connectivity in high-altitude and operationally sensitive sectors through significant advances in tunnel infrastructure. The report also highlighted last year’s commissioning of the IAF airfield at Mudh-Nyoma in eastern Ladakh. Located at an altitude of about 13,700 ft, it is India’s highest airfield.Pak aircraft targeted from 314 km: ReportThe Ministry of Defence report said that during Operation Sindoor against Pakistan in May last year, an Indian Air Force S-400 air defence unit successfully engaged and destroyed a Pakistani special mission aircraft from a distance of 314 km. With this operation, the IAF rewrote the rules of air defence, it said.