In an apparent move to defuse tensions that have been high since a deadly encounter in 2020, India claims to have reached an agreement with China on military patrols along their disputed Himalayan frontier.
An agreement between India and China on military patrols along their disputed Himalayan frontier was revealed on Monday, marking a significant move on the eve of the BRICS meeting and possibly a thaw in tense relations that have existed since a deadly encounter in 2020.
At a media conference in New Delhi on Monday, India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar stated that Indian and Chinese soldiers will be allowed to go back to patrolling as they did before to the border standoff starting in May 2020.
“We have returned to the 2020 stance after reaching a patrolling agreement. We can conclude that the separation from China is now complete. Information will become available eventually,” Jaishankar stated.
In certain places, we restricted them beyond 2020 for a variety of reasons. We have now come to an agreement that will let us to continue patrolling until 2020,” he continued.
In a news conference earlier in the day, India’s Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri revealed the most recent agreement between the two Asian neighbors, claiming that its goal is to disengage troops positioned along the disputed boundary.
“An agreement on patrolling arrangements along the LAC (Line of Actual Control) in the India-China border has been reached as a result of the close communication between Indian and Chinese diplomats and military negotiators over the last few weeks, which has led to the disengagements and a resolution of the issues that had arisen in 2020,” Misri told reporters.
Since May 2020, the two most populous countries in the world have been fighting each other along the 3,500-kilometer (2,174-mile) Ladakh sector of disputed Jammu and Kashmir (LAC), which is the de facto boundary between China and India.
Diplomatic and economic relations between the two nuclear-armed neighbors have long been hindered by the military standoff, which started after a bloody clash in the Galwan Valley that claimed the lives of 20 Indian soldiers and four Chinese soldiers.
According to Misri, the new discussions, which have involved several rounds of discussions between military and diplomatic personnel, should result in the resolution of problems that have existed before 2020.
The standoff had not yet been ended in a few places and areas. An agreement on patrolling measures along the LAC in regions near the India-China border has now been reached as a consequence of discussions over the past several weeks,” he said.
The deal is viewed as a start toward reducing tensions in the untamed Himalayan region, where both sides have gathered tens of thousands of troops, even if the details of military withdrawals are yet unknown.
“The patrolling arrangements along the Line of Actual Control will help pave the way for normalisation of political and business ties,” Misri said.
The development occurs in advance of the BRICS meeting, which gets underway in Russia on Tuesday. Russian President Vladimir Putin has invited Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to join the emerging economies conference.
Modi will have the chance to speak with Chinese President Xi Jinping face-to-face during the October 22–24 meeting.
Significant economic consequences have resulted from the worsening of ties between China and India. India has imposed strict restrictions on Chinese investments, thereby excluding billions of dollars in possible transactions from Chinese businesses.
Trade between the two countries has increased despite these tensions; since the confrontations, Indian imports from China have increased by 56%, and China has surpassed the US to become the South Asian nation’s greatest trading partner.
