India expects China to work towards early resolution of the remaining border issue, says MEA

India expects China to work towards early resolution of the remaining issue along the Line of Actual Control in Eastern Ladakh by fully abiding by bilateral agreements and protocols.

New Delhi: The Ministry of External Affairs on Thursday reiterated that India expects China to work towards early resolution of the remaining issue along the Line of Actual Control in Eastern Ladakh by fully abiding by bilateral agreements and protocols. Addressing the weekly media briefing here in the national capital, MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said, “We expect that China will work towards early resolution of the remaining issue along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Eastern Ladakh while fully abiding by bilateral agreements and protocols.”

He also reiterated that External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, met Chinese counterpart Wang Yi and both the leaders discussed the border tensions and disengagement along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in border areas.

"On the larger issue of External Affairs Minister discussion, as you know EAM did meet Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the margins of SCO in Tajikistan,” said Bagchi at the media briefing. Bagchi pointed out that provocative unilateral measures of China resulted in the disturbance of peace and tranquillity.

Last month, China has accused India of illegally crossing the LAC to encroach on China’s territory, saying it is the root cause of tension in the China-India border situation.

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In response to that, India then said, "It was the amassing of a large number of troops by the Chinese side, their provocative behaviour and unilateral attempts to alter the status quo in contravention of all our bilateral agreements that resulted in serious disturbance of peace and tranquillity along the LAC in Eastern Ladakh".

“We have given many statements on the issue. Earlier, we said that provocative unilateral measures of China result in disturbance of peace and tranquillity. We have repeated this many times,” said the MEA spokesperson. Speaking about the deployment of the Indian army to counter Chinese aggressiveness, Bagchi said, “We counter-deployed our Army in response to China’s aggressiveness to protect our security interest".

He said that in Tajikistan, India raised the same issue and the country hopes that China will work on it with us so that the disengagement process in other areas move ahead.

"In some areas, the disengagement process has been successful while some are left. We hope that China maintains bilateral protocols", said the spokesperson. India and China have been engaged in a border conflict since last year that has only strained the relationship. Several rounds of talks have taken place to sort out the border issue but the blame game still continues.

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