China on Friday said troops have disengaged at four places in eastern Ladakh, including Galwan Valley, and that the border situation is generally stable and under control between the two countries.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said India and China have agreed during their meeting in Russia to work together to create conditions for the improvement of bilateral ties.
“On September 12, Director Wang Yi met with India’s National Security Adviser Ajit Doval in St. Petersburg. The two sides discussed progress made in recent consultation on border issues and agreed to deliver on the common understandings reached by leaders of the two countries, enhance mutual understanding and trust, create conditions for improving bilateral ties and maintain communication to this end,” Mao said.
On a question of whether India and China were close to a breakthrough to revive the bilateral ties, which have been frozen for over four years due to the military standoff in eastern Ladakh, Mao said Chinese and Indian militaries have realised disengagement in four areas.
“In recent years, front-line armies of the two countries have realized disengagement in four areas in the Western sector of the China-India border, including the Galwan Valley. The China-India border situation is generally stable and under control,” she added.
Her comments come a day after external affairs minister S Jaishankar said roughly 75 per cent of the “disengagement problems” with China are sorted out but the bigger issue has been the increasing militarisation of the frontier.
At an interactive session at a think-tank in Geneva, Jaishankar said the Galwan Valley clashes of June 2020 affected the “entirety” of India-China ties. He also asserted that one cannot have violence at the border and then say the rest of the relationship is insulated from it.
He pointed out that India and China have been engaged in negotiations for the since 2020 to find a solution to the outstanding issues.
“Now those negotiations are going on. We made some progress. I would say roughly you can say about 75 per cent of the disengagement problems are sorted out,” he was quoted as saying by PTI. “We still have some things to do.”
Ajit Doval and Wang Yi meeting
NSA Ajit Doval and Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi held talks in the Russian city of St. Petersburg on the sidelines of a conclave of national security advisors of the BRICS (Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa) nations on Thursday.
Doval and Wang are the Special Representatives for the India-China border talks mechanism.
In a statement after their meeting, ministry of external affairs said India and China have agreed to work with “urgency” and “redouble” their efforts to achieve complete disengagement in the remaining friction points in eastern Ladakh.
The MEA said the meeting between Doval and Wang provided an opportunity to review the recent efforts towards finding an early resolution of the outstanding issues.
“The meeting gave the two sides an opportunity to review the recent efforts towards finding an early resolution of the remaining issues along the Line of Actual Control, which will create conditions to stabilise and rebuild bilateral relations,” the MEA said.
Relations between the two Asian countries have been at a six-decade low since the face-off on the LAC began in April-May 2020.
Dozens of rounds of diplomatic and military talks have resulted in the two sides withdrawing troops from other friction points such as the north and south banks of Pangong Lake, Gogra and Hot Spring.
India has maintained that its ties with China cannot be normal unless there is peace in the border areas. The two sides have so far held 21 rounds of Corps Commander-level talks to resolve the standoff.