China confirms agreement with India to end standoff in eastern Ladakh ahead of BRICS Summit

The statement from the Chinese side came after the foreign secretary Vikram Misri said the Indian and Chinese negotiators were in touch over the last few weeks to resolve the remaining issues.

Beijing: China on Tuesday confirmed that it has reached an agreement with India to end the standoff between the two armies in eastern Ladakh. “Over a recent period, China and India have been in close communication through diplomatic and military channels on issues related to the China-India border,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian told a media briefing here. “Now the two sides have reached a resolution on the relevant matters which China speaks highly of,” he said.

Going forward China will work with India to implement these resolutions, he said. He, however, declined to provide details.

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On the bilateral meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping on the margins of the BRICS summit at Russia's Kazan, he said, “We will keep you updated if anything comes up.”

India on Monday announced it has reached an agreement with China on patrolling along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh, in a major breakthrough in ending the over four-year-long military standoff between the two armies. The ties between the two Asian giants 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 and China reach agreement on patrolling along LAC

Earlier on Monday, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said the back-to-back meetings with Chinese counterparts led 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.

(With inputs from agency)

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