China confirms LAC pact, Army chief says restoring trust is first priority

At a media briefing in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said, “Over a recent period of time, China and India have kept close communication through diplomatic and military channels on issues related to the China-India border.”

Asked for a response to the Indian announcement about reaching an agreement to end the over four-year long military standoff, Lin said, the two sides have reached a resolution on the “relevant matters”. He said China will work with India to implement it but declined to provide details.

The state-run Global Times said the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson “confirmed progress”.

“Currently, the two sides have reached a solution on the relevant matters, which China views positively. In the next phase, China will work with India to effectively implement the solution plan,” it quoted Lin as telling the media briefing.

On the likelihood of a bilateral meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping on the margins of the BRICS Summit in Russia’s Kazan, Lin said, “We will keep you updated if anything comes up.”

In New Delhi, Army chief General Dwivedi, speaking on the sidelines of the Colonel Pyara Lal Memorial Lecture organised by the United Service Institution of India, said: “We want to go back to the status quo of April 2020. Thereafter, we will be looking at disengagement, de-escalation, normal management of the Line of Actual Control. This normal management of LAC will not just stop there. There are phases in that also. So this, what I am saying, has been our stance from April 2020.”

“As of now, we are trying to restore the trust. How will the trust get restored? It will get restored once we are able to see each other and we are able to convince each other. Look, the buffer zones which have been created, we are not creeping (in there) and both have to reassure each other. Patrolling gives you that kind of advantage… As we restore the trust, the other phases will also follow through.”

The announcement on the patrolling agreement was made Monday by Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri in New Delhi, setting the stage for a meeting between Prime Minister Modi and President X on the sidelines of the two-day BRICS Summit in Kazan, capital of Tatarstan in Russia’s southwest.

Also Monday, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, during an interaction at the NDTV World Summit, had called it a “positive and good” development.

“I think it creates a basis… peace and tranquillity, which should be there in the border areas, which was there before 2020, we will be able to come back to that,” he said.

Briefing reporters, Foreign Secretary Misri had said, “Over the last several weeks, Indian and Chinese diplomatic and military negotiators have been in close contact with each other in a variety of forums. As a result of these discussions, agreement has been arrived on patrolling arrangements along the Line of Actual Control in the India-China border areas, leading to disengagement and a resolution of the issues that had arisen in these areas in 2020. We will be taking the next steps on this.”

This development took place four and a half years after Chinese incursions in eastern Ladakh triggered a military standoff along the LAC and sent bilateral ties south.

The agreement on patrolling arrangements is expected to lead to disengagement, de-escalation and de-militarisation in areas where 50,000 to 60,000 troops are stationed on either side. Officials said this process is expected to begin in the next week to 10 days.

It is learnt that the two sides have agreed to restore patrolling rights to each in the Depsang Plains and Demchok region — these are areas where the problems are called legacy issues, predating the 2020 Chinese incursions.

This means that Indian troops can patrol up to patrolling point (PP) 10 to 13 in the Depsang Plains, and in Charding Nullah of Demchok.

Sources said certain mutual agreements have also been made for the eastern theatre, especially in the sensitive sectors of Arunachal Pradesh. Other sectors in the east will come up in discussions later between the two sides.