New Delhi: India and China held yet another round of talks Wednesday under the Working Mechanism for Consultation & Coordination (WMCC) on bilateral border affairs and agreed to “sincerely implement” the five-point plan reached between External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and his Chinese counterpart and State Councilor Wang Yi earlier this month.
This is the fifth round of WMCC talks since the ongoing stand-off in the Ladakh sector of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) began in May 2020. The meeting was chaired by Naveen Srivastava, Joint Secretary (East Asia), Ministry of External Affairs, and Hong Liang, Director of the Boundary and Maritime Affairs Department in China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
During the meeting, both sides reviewed the situation along the LAC and had “frank and detailed discussions” on the developments since the last meeting of the WMCC on 20 August, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in a statement.
“The two sides attached importance to the meetings between the two defence ministers and the two foreign ministers held earlier this month. They also noted that the agreement between the two foreign ministers should be sincerely implemented to ensure disengagement at all the friction points along the LAC,” the MEA added.
During the meeting, it said, both New Delhi and Beijing agreed to “strengthen communication, especially between the ground commanders”.
Also read: What’s the 1959 claim line? The one China says it’s following in the Ladakh stand-off
‘Avoid misunderstandings’
This round of the WMCC talks, held virtually, comes days after the sixth meeting between senior commanders of the two sides on 21 September, where both sides agreed to “avoid misunderstandings and misjudgements, stop sending more troops to the frontline, refrain from unilaterally changing the situation on the ground” and not take any action that might complicate matters.
The 21 September meeting is the only one since May where military commanders as well as diplomats participated in the talks together. The two arms have individually carried out multiple talks over the past few months to resolve the LAC stand-off.
In a statement issued by the Chinese Foreign Ministry on Wednesday’s WMCC meeting, Beijing said they will abide by the five-point agenda reached between both sides in Moscow on 10 September, when Jaishankar and Wang met on the margins of the Shanghai Cooperation Council (SCO) foreign ministers meeting.
During that meeting, apart from committing to talk and disengaging fast, both sides also agreed to conclude new confidence-building measures on border affairs.
Also read: Jaishankar to visit Japan in October, participate in Quad meeting amid China tensions