India & China Agree To Restart Border Patrolling Along LAC In Eastern Ladakh

Foreign Secretary Vikram Mistri confirmed that the Indian and Chinese military have reached an agreement to restart patrolling on Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh. He mentioned that over last few weeks, Indian and Chinese negotiators have been in touch on it.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said Indian and Chinese soldiers will 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.

It is understood that the agreement pertains to patrolling in Depsang and Demchok areas.

The announcement on 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.

Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri has also mentioned that this development may lead to an disengagement at the border.

Misri reportedly said, "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 area 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.

The relations between the two neighbors have been strained since the fierce clash in the Galwan Valley in 2020 along the eastern Ladakh border led to the deaths of 20 Indian soldiers and an undisclosed number of Chinese PLA casualties.

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, External Affairs Minister S 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.

'It Is A Good Development': EAM Jaishankar On The Deal

In an interactive session at the NDTV summit, Jaishankar described the finalisation of the agreement as a "good development".

"We reached an agreement on patrolling and with that the disengagement that we have gone back to where the situation was in 2020 and we can say with that the disengagement process with China has been completed," he said.

"I think it is a good development; it is a positive development and I would say it is a product of very patient and very persevering diplomacy," the minister said.

To a question, Jaishankar indicated that India will be able to carry out patrolling in Depsang and other areas.

"So what has happened is that we reached an understanding which will allow the patrolling which you spoke about Depsang, that's not the only place," he said.

"There are other places also. The understanding to my knowledge is that we will be able to do the patrolling which we were doing in 2020 (prior to the standoff)," he said.

The external affairs minister said both sides have been holding negotiations to end the standoff since September 2020.

"On the one hand we had to obviously do the counter deployments, but side-by-side, we have been negotiating.

"We have been negotiating since September of 2020 when I met my Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Moscow," he said.

"It has been a very patient process," Jaishankar said, adding maybe it was more complicated "than it could have and should have been".

Jaishankar said there was peace and tranquility along the LAC before 2020 and "hopefully we will be able to come back to that".

"That was our major concern because we always said that if you disturb the peace and tranquility, how do you expect the rest of the relationship to go forward," he said.

On the difficult negotiations, Jaishankar said: "At various points of time, people almost gave up, you can say."