In what could be called a huge breakthrough, India and China have reached an agreement on resuming patrolling along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh, foreign secretary Vikram Misri announced.
The patrolling had stopped since the 2020 Galwan clash. While Misri did not elaborate, foreign minister S Jaishankar said both sides with this “positive” agreement have returned to the situation that existed in 2020 and the disengagement process has been completed. The minister also said Indian troops will again be able to do patrolling like it did before the stand-off erupted in 2020.
The development, which followed a flurry of meetings between India and China since July this year to complete disengagement in the remaining areas, has opened the door for a formal bilateral meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the margins of the Brics summit in Kazan. While the Indian side stopped short of officially confirming it, It has learnt that both sides are working to have the meeting on Oct 23. It’s likely to coincide with a formal announcement by both sides about the agreement.
There was no comment by China on the issue, but Misri said India will be taking the next steps on the agreement reached. Modi and Xi last had a formal bilateral engagement in 2019. Bilateral visits have been rare since the Galwan clash in June 2020, in which 20 Indian soldiers were killed, with India maintaining the ties won’t become normal till disengagement is completed and peace and tranquility restored in border areas.
“We have gone back to where the situation was in 2020. You can say the disengagement process with China has been completed. I’m sure more details will emerge in due course,” said Jaishankar.
Underscoring the importance of ties with China, Modi had said in an interview earlier this year both sides need to urgently address “the prolonged situation on our borders so that the abnormality in our bilateral interactions can be put behind us”.
