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 resolved the “relevant matters,” he said.
The minister said, going forward, China will work with India to implement these resolutions.
On Monday, in a major development, the central government announced that a deal has been reached on patrolling in eastern Ladakh, ending a four-year military stand-off that began after clashes between the armies in Galwan in 2020. The announcement came ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Russia or the Brics summit, during which he could hold talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
On a possible meeting between the two leaders of the Asian giants on the sidelines of the Summit, the Chinese Foreign Minister told the reporters, “We will keep you updated if anything comes up”.
The agreement was firmed up following negotiations by the two sides over the last several weeks and it will lead to a resolution of the issues that had arisen in 2020. In one of the latest such talks, last month, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi held talks in the Russian city of St Petersburg with a focus on finding an early resolution to the row.
The Indian and Chinese soldiers will now be able to resume patrolling in the way they had been doing before the border face-off began and the disengagement process with China has been completed, according to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.
