New Delhi: Four-and-half years after border tensions began in May 2020, India announced Monday that it had reached an agreement with China for disengagement and for restarting border patrols.
“Over the last several weeks, Indian and Chinese diplomatic and military negotiators have been in close contact with each other in a variety of forums… as a result of these discussions, agreement has been arrived on patrolling arrangement along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) along India-China border leading to disengagement and resolution of the issues that had risen in these areas in 2020. And we will be taking the next step on this,” Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri told reporters.
Asked again, he said, “We have reached an agreement on issues that were being discussed.” He was briefing the media ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Russia for the BRICS summit.
Misri, howewever, was non-committal on the possibility of bilateral talks between Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Russia has encouaged both India and China to work out a solution to the strain in ties that ensued after Chinese troops encroached into Indian-dominated territories in 2020.
The Chinese were keen to restart ties with India as they wanted other aspects of bilateral ties, like business and investment, to carry on even as both sides continued to work on the border issue.
However, the Indian government was clear that everything was linked to the border issue.
(Edited by Tikli Basu)
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