New Delhi: Shortly after the Foreign Secretary announced that Indian and Chinese negotiators had reached an agreement on patrolling along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar affirmed this development, stating that the Indian Armed Forces will be able to resume patrolling in areas that were accessible prior to the 2020 clash.
Speaking at the NDTV World Summit, Jaishankar said, "We will be able to go back to 2020 patrolling".
India and China reach agreement on patrolling along LAC
Earlier today, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said that Indian and Chinese negotiators have reached an agreement on patrolling along LAC. The foreign secretary said the Indian and Chinese negotiators were in touch over the last few weeks to resolve the remaining issues. It is understood that the agreement pertains to patrolling in Depsang and Demchok areas. The announcement of the breakthrough comes a day ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's travel to the Russian city of Kazan to attend the BRICS Summit.
Though there is no official announcement, it is expected that Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping will hold a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit.
He said this is leading to dis-engagement and eventually a resolution of the issues that arose after action by the Chinese military in eastern Ladakh in 2020. "We have been in discussion with Chinese interlocutors through WMCC as was mentioned earlier and at the military level as well through meetings of the military commanders at various levels. These discussions have in the past resulted in the resolution of standoffs at various locations. You are also aware that there were a few locations where the standoff had not been resolved," he said.
"Now as a result of the discussions that have taken place over the last several weeks, an agreement has been arrived at on patroling arrangements along the line of actual control in the India-China border areas and this is leading to dis-engagement and eventually a resolution of the issues that had arisen in these areas in 2020."
It is not immediately clear whether the agreement facilitates the restoration of patrolling rights that were in place prior to the standoff.
India-China border tension
The Indian and Chinese militaries have been locked in the standoff since May 2020 and a full resolution of the border row has not yet been achieved though the two sides have disengaged from a number of friction points.
The ties between the two countries nosedived significantly following the fierce clash in the Galwan Valley in June 2020 that marked the most serious military conflict between the two sides in decades. India has been maintaining that its ties with China cannot be normal unless there is peace in the border areas.
In all negotiations since the standoff began, India has been pressing the People's Liberation Army (PLA) to disengage from the Depsang and Demchok areas. Last month, Jaishankar said roughly 75 per cent of the "disengagement problems" with China are sorted out but the bigger issue has been the increasing militarisation of the frontier.
"Now those negotiations are going on. We made some progress. I would say roughly you can say about 75 per cent of the disengagement problems are sorted out," he said at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy.
"We still have some things to do," he said.
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