China on Tuesday confirmed reaching an agreement with India to end the standoff between the two countries' armies in the eastern Ladakh region.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian addressed a briefing and said, "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. Now the two sides have reached a resolution on the relevant matters which China speaks highly of."
Without providing further details, he said that going forward, China and India will work together to implement these solutions.
Lin Jian said that any updates regarding Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping's meeting on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in Russia will be provided if it comes up.
Notably, India on Monday announced that an agreement to resolve the conflict over border patrolling along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the India-China border region had been reached.
Foreign Secretary Vikram Mistri 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."
He added that this development might also lead to an disengagement at the border.
Meanwhile, 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 has been understood that the agreement pertains to the patrolling in Depsang and Demchok areas.
The ties between the two neighbours have been strained since the fierce Galwan Valley clashes that took place in 2020 along the eastern Ladakh border, leading to the death of 20 Indian soldiers and an undisclosed number of Chinese (People's Liberation Army) soldiers.
India has repeatedly maintained that its relations with China cannot normalise unless peace is achieved in the border areas.
Last month, Jaishankar said that roughly 75 per cent of the 'disengagement issues' with China had been sorted out but, the bigger issue has been the increasing militarisation of the frontier.
The finalisation of the agreement after years of negotiations was described as a "good development" by Jaishankar, adding that this was a product of very patient and very persevering diplomacy.
Saying that there was peace and tranquility along the LAC before 2020, the EAM said that "hopefully we will be able to come back to that".
