New Delhi:

India-China ties – “abnormal” since April 2020, when the two militaries clashed in parts of eastern Ladakh, leading to fatalities on both sides for the first time in 45 years – have improved recently, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar told the Lok Sabha Tuesday, explaining that “continuous diplomatic engagement since then (has) set our ties in the direction of some improvement”.

India remains committed, Mr Jaishankar said, to engaging with China “through bilateral talks to arrive at a fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable settlement for the border issue”.

It is, however evident, he told Parliament, that management of border areas will require further attention in light of our recent experiences. He flagged three key principles to be observed in all circumstances.

The first is that both sides should strictly respect and observe the LAC. The second is that neither should attempt to unilaterally alter the status quo, and the third is that agreements and understandings reached in the past must be fully abided by in their entirety.

“Members will recall the amassing of a large number of troops by China along the LAC (Line of Actual Control) in eastern Ladakh in April-May 2020 resulted in face-offs with our forces at a number of points. The situation also led to disruption of patrolling activities,” the EAM began his remarks.

“It is to the credit of our armed forces that despite logistical challenges, and the then prevailing Covid situation, they were able to counter-deploy rapidly and effectively,” he said.

“While a determined counter-deployment of adequate capability was the immediate response, there was also the imperative of a diplomatic effort to defuse tensions and restore peace and tranquility.”

That diplomatic effort, which included nearly two dozen rounds of talks between military commanders, the most recent on August 29, led to the October agreement, under which Indian and Chinese troops returned to positions, and resumed patrolling routes, prior to the April 2020 face-off.

READ | “Back To 2020 Patrolling”: S Jaishankar To NDTV On India-China Pact

Last week the government said that deal had been implemented as agreed.

READ | Army “Successfully” Completes Patrolling To Key Point In Depsang

The agreement – announced hours before Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Russia for a BRICS Summit at which China’s Xi Jinping would also be present – was seen as a roadmap to restoration of peace and tranquility along the LAC, a status quo the Indian government has often spoken about as the first, and a necessary, step towards any normalisation of relations between the two countries.

READ | PM Modi, Xi Welcome “Complete Disengagement” Along LAC

On that topic, Mr Jaishankar said the immediate priority – of disengagement of troops from friction points in eastern Ladakh, specifically in the Depsang and Demchok areas, had been “fully achieved”.

The next priority is to consider de-escalation, which will address amassing of troops along the Line of Actual Control, which serves as the de facto international border, the External Affairs Minister said.

Mr Jaishankar’s remarks came two weeks after Defence Minister Rajnath Singh met his Chinese counterpart, Dong Jun, for a first ministerial-level meet since the disengagement in eastern Ladakh. 

READ | India, China Defence Ministers’ 1st High-Level Talks Post Disengagement

Mr Singh and Mr Dong, a former naval Commander appointed in December last year, met on the sidelines of a two-day, 10-nation ASEAN summit in Laos that began November 20.

Disenagement and patrolling in Depsang and Demchok follows similar positive actions on the north and south banks of the Pangong Lake in 2021, and in the contentious Gogra-Hot Springs area in September a year later. In each case the two sides withdrew to pre-April 2020 positions.

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New Delhi:

Despite the patrolling agreement with China, which was announced earlier this week, it will take time to rebuild trust and for the two countries to be willing to work with each other, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has said.

During an interaction with students from a university in Pune on Saturday, Mr Jaishankar said the breakthrough with China was possible because the military enabled India to stand its ground and make its point and diplomacy also did its part. A focus on infrastructure in border areas, which enabled effective deployment of the military, also played a key role.

Responding to a question on the patrolling and disengagement agreement in the Depsang and Demchok areas in Eastern Ladakh and what can be expected from the future of India-China relations, the minister said, “From 2020, the situation at the border has been very disturbed and that has, understandably, had a very negative impact on the overall relationship. Since September 2020, we have been negotiating with the Chinese on how to find a solution.”

Mr Jaishankar said there were different aspects to the solution but the pressing one was disengagement because “the troops are very very close up to each other and the possibility of something happening, god forbid, is there”. The other aspects, he said are de-escalation, given the troop buildup by China and India’s response to it, and the larger question of boundary settlement.

The focus, for now, is disengagement, the minister said, stressing that while there had been understandings in some areas after 2020, blocking of patrolling remained an issue which was being negotiated for two years.  

“So, what happened on October 21 was that in Depsang and Demchok, we came to the understanding that patrolling would be resumed how it used to be before… This was important because it was an affirmation that if we can do the disengagement, then it is possible for the leadership level to meet, which is what happened (with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-Chinese President Xi Jinping meeting) in Russia’s Kazan during the BRICS summit,” he said during the interaction at FLAME University in Pune.

Future Of Ties

On the question of where the India-China relationship goes from here, Mr Jaishankar said, “I think it is a bit early. We have to wait for things to settle themselves. Because, after four years of a very disturbed border where peace and tranquillity have been shattered, it will naturally take time to rebuild a degree of trust and a willingness to work with each other.”

“If we have reached where we have today, there are two reasons for it. The first is a very determined effort on our part to stand our ground and make our point and this would only happen because the military was there in very, very unimaginable conditions to defend the country. The military did its part and diplomacy did its part,” he emphasised.

The second reason, the minister said, was the importance given to improving infrastructure in the border areas in the past decade. 

“Today, we have put in almost five times annually the resources that would be there a decade ago. That’s showing results and that enables the military to be effectively deployed. I would be patient. When PM Modi and President Xi met, it was decided that the foreign ministers and national security advisers would meet and see how this should be taken forward,” he explained. 

Process On

NDTV had reported on Friday on satellite images showing tents and semi-permanent structures being removed by the Chinese side in Depsang and Demchok. 

The patrolling agreement had been announced by Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri on Monday and army sources had said on Friday that the process of disengagement would be completed in the two contentious areas by October 29. PM Modi and Mr Jinping welcomed the agreement when they met on Wednesday.

The stand-off between the Indian and Chinese armies began on May 2020 and a deadly clash took place in Ladakh’s Galwan the next month in which 20 Indian soldiers were killed in action and an unspecified number on the Chinese side also died. 

A troop buildup followed and, after months of talks, Indian and Chinese troops withdrew from the contentious Gogra-Hot Springs area in Ladakh in September 2022 and returned to the pre-April-2020 position.

New Delhi:

Despite the patrolling agreement with China, which was announced earlier this week, it will take time to rebuild trust and for the two countries to be willing to work with each other, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has said.

During an interaction with students from a university in Pune on Saturday, Mr Jaishankar said the breakthrough with China was possible because the military enabled India to stand its ground and make its point and diplomacy also did its part. A focus on infrastructure in border areas, which enabled effective deployment of the military, also played a key role.

Responding to a question on the patrolling and disengagement agreement in the Depsang and Demchok areas in Eastern Ladakh and what can be expected from the future of India-China relations, the minister said, “From 2020, the situation at the border has been very disturbed and that has, understandably, had a very negative impact on the overall relationship. Since September 2020, we have been negotiating with the Chinese on how to find a solution.”

Mr Jaishankar said there were different aspects to the solution but the pressing one was disengagement because “the troops are very very close up to each other and the possibility of something happening, god forbid, is there”. The other aspects, he said are de-escalation, given the troop buildup by China and India’s response to it, and the larger question of boundary settlement.

The focus, for now, is disengagement, the minister said, stressing that while there had been understandings in some areas after 2020, blocking of patrolling remained an issue which was being negotiated for two years.  

“So, what happened on October 21 was that in Depsang and Demchok, we came to the understanding that patrolling would be resumed how it used to be before… This was important because it was an affirmation that if we can do the disengagement, then it is possible for the leadership level to meet, which is what happened (with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-Chinese President Xi Jinping meeting) in Russia’s Kazan during the BRICS summit,” he said during the interaction at FLAME University in Pune.

Future Of Ties

On the question of where the India-China relationship goes from here, Mr Jaishankar said, “I think it is a bit early. We have to wait for things to settle themselves. Because, after four years of a very disturbed border where peace and tranquillity have been shattered, it will naturally take time to rebuild a degree of trust and a willingness to work with each other.”

“If we have reached where we have today, there are two reasons for it. The first is a very determined effort on our part to stand our ground and make our point and this would only happen because the military was there in very, very unimaginable conditions to defend the country. The military did its part and diplomacy did its part,” he emphasised.

The second reason, the minister said, was the importance given to improving infrastructure in the border areas in the past decade. 

“Today, we have put in almost five times annually the resources that would be there a decade ago. That’s showing results and that enables the military to be effectively deployed. I would be patient. When PM Modi and President Xi met, it was decided that the foreign ministers and national security advisers would meet and see how this should be taken forward,” he explained. 

Process On

NDTV had reported on Friday on satellite images showing tents and semi-permanent structures being removed by the Chinese side in Depsang and Demchok. 

The patrolling agreement had been announced by Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri on Monday and army sources had said on Friday that the process of disengagement would be completed in the two contentious areas by October 29. PM Modi and Mr Jinping welcomed the agreement when they met on Wednesday.

The stand-off between the Indian and Chinese armies began on May 2020 and a deadly clash took place in Ladakh’s Galwan the next month in which 20 Indian soldiers were killed in action and an unspecified number on the Chinese side also died. 

A troop buildup followed and, after months of talks, Indian and Chinese troops withdrew from the contentious Gogra-Hot Springs area in Ladakh in September 2022 and returned to the pre-April-2020 position.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and India Prime Minister Narendra Modi meet on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia, on Wednesday (October 23, 2024).
| Photo Credit: China Daily via Reuters

China has said that the disengagement of troops in eastern Ladakh by the Chinese and Indian armies is going on “smoothly” following a recent agreement between the two nations.

On October 23, 2024, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping endorsed the agreement on patrolling and disengagement along the LAC in eastern Ladakh during their bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in Kazan, Russia.

“In accordance with the resolutions that China and India reached recently on issues concerning the border area, the Chinese and Indian frontier troops are engaged in relevant work, which is going smoothly at the moment,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian told a media briefing in Beijing on Friday (October 25, 2024).

Also Read: BRICS Summit 2024 Highlights

India announced the agreement to pull back troops from the friction points on October 21 and China confirmed a day later saying the two sides have reached “resolutions on relevant matters” and Beijing will work with New Delhi to implement these resolutions.

“Following the agreement, the two countries have begun troop disengagement at the two friction points at Demchok and Depsang Plains in eastern Ladakh and this process is likely to be completed by October 28-29,” Indian Army sources said on Friday (October 25, 2024).

“The agreement was arrived at only for these two friction points, and “talks are still underway” for other areas,” they said.

The sources said that patrolling will begin at these points once the disengagement that began two days back is completed and both sides will move their respective troops and dismantle temporary structures.

Eventually, they added, the areas and patrolling status are expected to be moved back to the pre-April 2020 level.

​Over the borderline: On the India-China deal 

The ties between the two Asian giants nosedived following a fierce clash in the Galwan Valley in June 2020 that marked the most serious military conflict between the two sides in decades.

Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said on Monday (October 21, 2024) in New Delhi that the agreement was finalised following negotiations over the past several weeks and that it would lead to a resolution of the issues that arose in 2020.

 Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian told a media briefing in Beijing that China and India have been in close communication through diplomatic and military channels on issues related to the China-India border. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

China on Tuesday (October 22, 2024) confirmed that it has reached an agreement with India to end the standoff between the two armies in eastern Ladakh.

“Over a recent period, China and India have been in close communication through diplomatic and military channels on issues related to the China-India border,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian told a media briefing in Beijing.

“Now the two sides have reached a resolution on the relevant matters which China speaks highly of,” he said.

“Going forward China will work with India to implement these resolutions,” he said.

He, however, declined to provide details.

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

India on Monday (October 21, 2024) announced it has reached an agreement with China on patrolling along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh, in a major breakthrough in ending the over four-year-long military standoff between the two armies.

The ties between the two Asian giants nosedived significantly following the fierce clash in the Galwan Valley in June 2020 that marked the most serious military conflict between the two sides in decades.