Eastern Ladakh disengagement: India-China will hold Senior Commanders meeting soon

Both sides have resolved that the 19th round of Senior Commanders meeting will be held at an early date aimed at paving way for disengagement in eastern Ladakh.

New Delhi: After holding another round of diplomatic talks here over the ongoing border standoff in the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh region, India and China on Wednesday agreed to continue their talks through military and diplomatic channels.

While both sides discussed proposals for disengagement in the remaining areas in a frank and open manner, they concurred that restoration of peace and tranquility will create conditions for normalising bilateral relations, in the 27th Meeting of the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on India-China Border Affairs (WMCC) .

A statement to this effect was issued by the Ministry of External Affairs which said the meeting took place on Wednesday. "The two sides reviewed the situation along the LAC in the Western Sector of India-China border areas and discussed proposals for disengagement in remaining areas in a frank and open manner. Restoration of peace and tranquility will create conditions for normalising bilateral relations", the statement read.

To achieve this objective, by existing bilateral agreements and protocols, they agreed to hold the next (19th) round of Senior Commanders meeting at an early date, it added. Joint Secretary (East Asia) from MEA led the Indian Delegation. The Chinese delegation was led by the DG of Boundary and Oceanic Affairs Department of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The military stand-off in the LAC has pushed the India-China ties to the lowest. The tempers in border have been running high ever since the brutal Galwan Valley clash that killed 20 Indian soldiers and an unspecified number of Chinese troops in June 2020.

China has time and again reiterated that the border row is to be placed in its “appropriate place” in bilateral relations. However, India at several global forums has maintained that relations with China cannot be normalised till peace and tranquillity are restored along the LAC.

Earlier in May, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar conveyed to his Chinese counterpart that the state of India-China relations is "abnormal" because of the lingering border row in eastern Ladakh."We have to take the disengagement process forward," he told Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang.