NEW DELHI: External affairs minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday briefed Lok Sabha on the recent India-China thaw along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and said that India is “committed to engaging with China to arrive at fair, mutually acceptable framework for boundary settlement”.
“Recent developments that reflect continuous diplomatic engagements have set Indo-China ties in direction of some improvement,” Jaishankar said while addressing the Lower House in the Winter Session.
The foreign minister said that India-China ties have been abnormal since 2020 when peace and tranquillity in border areas were disturbed due to Chinese actions.
“Recent developments that reflect continuous diplomatic engagements have set Indo-China ties in the direction of some improvement,” said Jaishankar in Lok Sabha.
He said peace and tranquillity between New Delhi and Beijing would be the basis to move forward.
“Our relationship has progressed in many domains but is obviously negatively affected by recent events. We are clear that the maintenance of peace and tranquility in border areas is pre-requisite for the development of our ties. In the coming days, we will be discussing both de-escalation as well affective management of our activities in the border areas,” Jaishankar said.
“The conclusion of disengagement phase now allows us to consider other aspects of our bilateral engagement in a calibrated manner keeping our national security interest first and foremost,” he added.
The foreign minister further said: “It is to the credit of our forces that despite logistical challenges and Covid, they countered Chinese troops rapidly.”
He said that the next priority would be to consider de-escalation that would address amassing of troops along the LAC.
Jaishankar also mentioned about defence minister Rajnath Singh‘s bilateral talks with Chinese counterpart Dong Jun in Laos’s Vientiane on the sidelines of the 11th Asean Defence Ministers Meeting-Plus (ADMM Plus).
Singh’s meeting came weeks after New Delhi and Beijing reached an agreement to break the border impasse by agreeing to pull their troops along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) to the pre-2020 position, the year that saw a deadly clash between forces of both nations in Galwan.
Disengagement in friction areas
In November, the armies of India and China agreed to conduct coordinated patrols once a week in the Demchok and Depsang areas along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Eastern Ladakh, and have already completed the first round of joint patrols in early November following the recent disengagement in these areas. According to the agreement, each side will conduct one patrol per week in both regions.
Indian and Chinese troops will alternate weekly patrols in each area, which is expected to support de-escalation efforts and confidence-building measures between the two countries.
The agreement for disengagement and coordinated patrols came after multiple rounds of negotiations at political, diplomatic, and military levels. Both sides will continue to engage in ground-level discussions at regular intervals to ensure the stability of the situation.