After the 12-hour long corp-commander level talk between the Indian Army and the Chinese PLA, India and China have agreed to disengage front-line border troops from Ladakh in batches, Chinese media Global Times said.
New Delhi, July 1:
India and China have decided to disengage troops from the border in Ladakh in batches, Chinese state media reported on Wednesday.
Chinese government mouthpiece Global Times said that India and China have agreed to disengage front-line border troops in batches.
The two sides have also agreed to take effective measures to ease the situation in the border areas, the Global Times added.
The announcement came after the 12-hour long corp commander-level meeting between Indian and Chinese armies that took place in Chushul sector in eastern Ladakh on Tuesday.
Indian sources said that both armies have emphasised the need for an “expeditious, phased and stepwise” de-escalation as a “priority” to end the seven-week bitter standoff in eastern Ladakh.
This, the sources said, is in sync with the agreement between External Affairs Ministers S Jaishankar and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in their telephonic talks on June 17 that the overall situation would be handled in a responsible manner.
They said the process of disengagement along the Line of Actual Control(LAC) is “complex”, and in such a context, speculative and unsubstantiated reports need to be avoided.
The sources said the discussions reflected the commitment of the two sides to reduce tensions along the LAC and more meetings are expected, both at military and diplomatic levels, to arrive at a “mutually agreeable solution”.
At Tuesday’s dialogue, the two sides also resolved to sincerely implement the disengagement understanding reached in the first corps commander-level talks on June 6, they said.
It was the third senior military commander level engagement to discuss issues related to disengagement at the faceoff sites along the LAC and de-escalation from the border areas
“The meeting on Tuesday was long and held in a businesslike manner keeping in view the Covid-19 protocols. The discussions reflected the commitment of both sides to reduce the tensions along the LAC,” the source said.
It further said: “More meetings are expected both at the military and at the diplomatic level, in future, to arrive at the mutually agreeable solution and to ensure peace and tranquillity along the LAC as per bilateral agreements and protocols.”
The Indian and Chinese armies are locked in a bitter standoff in multiple locations in eastern Ladakh for the last seven weeks, and the tension escalated manifold after 20 Indian soldiers were killed in a violent clash in Galwan Valley on June 15. The Chinese side also suffered casualties but it is yet to give out the details.
