Quoting External affairs Minister S Jaishankar the MEA spokesperson during his weekly briefing said that “In the context of overall development of our bilateral relationship as external affairs minister had noted in a recent interview the state of the border and the future of our ties cannot be separated”.
Meanwhile, both the country continue to be engaged at both military and diplomatic levels to ease the tension along the Line of Control in Eastern Ladakah. This week, India’s ambassador in China, Vikram Misri had two important meetings with the Chinese military and diplomatic officials. On Friday he met Major General Ci Guowei, Director of the Office of International Military Cooperation of the Central Military Commission, and briefed him on India’s stance vis-à-vis the situation on the borders in eastern Ladakh UT.
Earlier on Wednesday he had met the Deputy Director of the Office of the CPC Central Committee Foreign Affairs Commission on the issue of LCA standoff and briefed him about India’s stand along on the ongoing LAC standoff and overall bilateral relations.
Commenting on the recent dialogue between India and Chinese officials, spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, Anurag Srivastav has said that, India and China both remain engaged through both diplomatic and military channels to ensure complete disengagement along the India-China border areas. He indicated that further meetings are likely to happen in the near future between the officials of both sides.
India and China have held five rounds of talks at the level of senior military commanders and three rounds of talks between diplomats to reach out to an amicable solution to the serious tensions that erupted between the two countries following the violent clash in the Galwan valley on 15th June. In these meetings, both sides have discussed the implementation of the ongoing disengagement process and further steps to ensure it is completed at the earliest.
However, the spokesperson noted, that “translating these principles on the ground is a complex process that requires redeployment of troops by each side towards the regular post on the respective sides of the LAC”
India and China had held the 17th meeting of the Working Mechanism for Consultation & Coordination on India-China Border Affairs (WMCC) on 24 July. At the meeting which was of the level of Joint secretary, the two sides agreed that early and complete disengagement of the troops along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and de-escalation from India-China border areas in accordance with bilateral agreement and protocols and full restoration of peace and tranquillity was essential for the smooth overall development of bilateral relations.
India has said that it wants the ongoing disengagement process to be completed at the earliest, but India is not the only stakeholder in the process. ‘It is important to bear in mind that achieving this requires agreed actions by both sides. We, therefore, expect that the Chinese side to sincerely work with us towards the objective of complete disengagement and de-escalation and full restoration of peace and Tranquility in the Border areas as agreed by the special Representatives.” added the MEA spokesperson.
Reports: Abhishek Jha
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