New Delhi: India asked China Thursday to “sincerely” work with it for a “complete disengagement and de-escalation” process in Ladakh to enable the “full restoration” of peace and tranquillity in border areas as decided during bilateral talks between National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
“Respecting and strictly abiding” by the Line of Actual Control (LAC) is the basis of peace and tranquillity in the border areas, something that was also agreed upon during Doval-Wang talks on 5 July, the Ministry of External Affairs said at its briefing Thursday.
Doval and Wang are also the special representatives (SRs) for border affairs. Their talks earlier this month helped catalyse disengagement between the Indian and Chinese armies at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh, after months of tensions triggered by Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) incursions in the area. However, there have been reports that the process has been slow, and may last through the region’s bitter winter.
“As we have stated earlier, the maintenance of peace and tranquillity in the border areas is the basis of our bilateral relationship. Therefore, it is our expectation that the Chinese side will sincerely work with us for complete disengagement and de-escalation and full restoration of peace and tranquillity in the border areas at the earliest as agreed to by the special representatives,” MEA spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said.
Both sides, he added, will “soon” convene another meeting of the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on India-China Border Affairs (WMCC) — a mechanism for bilateral talks.
The last round of WMCC talks took place on 10 July, between Naveen Srivastava, joint secretary (East Asia), and Wu Jianghao, director general of the department of boundary and oceanic affairs in the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
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‘India fully committed’
Sources said the disengagement process has not been taking place smoothly and, in the last few days, the pace has slowed down owing to “China’s approach to the issue”.
“We have also made it clear that India is fully committed to observing and respecting the LAC and that we will not accept any unilateral attempts to change the status quo along the LAC,” Srivastava added at the briefing.
“The two sides have agreed during the conversation of the special representatives to work towards complete disengagement of the troops along the LAC and de-escalation from India-China border areas for full restoration of peace and tranquillity,” he said.
Earlier this month, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said Indian and Chinese troops are deployed “very close to each other” in Ladakh and that disengagement is “work in progress”.
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