India, China reach agreement on patrolling along LAC in eastern Ladakh

India’s Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri on Monday (October 21) said that Indian and Chinese military negotiators have reached an agreement on patrolling along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh.

Misri said, “Agreement has been arrived at on patrolling arrangements along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the India-China border areas, leading to disengagement and a resolution of the issues that had arisen in these areas in 2020 and we will be taking the next steps on this”.

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The foreign secretary said the Indian and Chinese negotiators were in touch over the last few weeks to resolve the remaining issues.

It is understood that the agreement pertains to patrolling in Depsang and Demchok areas.

PM Modi's BRICS Summit visit

The foreign secretary’s statement has come just ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Kazan for BRICS Summit on October 22. This move could well pave the way for a bilateral meeting between Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

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It is not immediately clear whether the agreement facilitates the restoration of patrolling rights that were in place prior to the standoff.

The Indian and Chinese militaries have been locked in the standoff since May 2020 and a full resolution of the border row has not yet been achieved though the two sides have disengaged from a number of friction points.

The ties between the two countries 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.

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India has been maintaining that its ties with China cannot be normal unless there is peace in the border areas.

In all negotiations since the standoff began, India has been pressing the People's Liberation Army (PLA) to disengage from the Depsang and Demchok areas.

What Jaishankar had said

Last month, 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.

"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 said at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy. "We still have some things to do," he said. 

(With agency inputs)