Will be able to go back to 2020 patrolling: EAM Jaishankar on India-China pact on patrolling

New Delhi, Oct 21 (PTI) Indian and Chinese troops will be able to carry out patrolling the way they used to do before the military standoff between the two sides erupted in May 2020, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Monday after the two sides sealed a pact to resolve the festering border row in eastern Ladakh.

Shortly after the foreign secretary announced the agreement on patrolling along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh, Jaishankar said the disengagement process with China has been completed.

The breakthrough in resolving the over four-year military standoff in eastern Ladakh came ahead of a likely bilateral meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in the Russian city of Kazan this week.

"We reached an agreement on patrolling and with that the disengagement that we have gone back to where the situation was in 2020 and we can say...with that the disengagement process with China has been completed," Jaishankar said at the NDTV summit.

"I think it is a good development; it is a positive development and I would say it is a product of very patient and very persevering diplomacy," the minister said.

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.

The two sides disengaged from a number of friction points following a series of military and diplomatic talks in the last couple of years.

However, the talks hit hurdles over the way forward in resolving the situation in Depsang and Demchok.

The external affairs minister said peace and tranquility along the border is important for the overall ties between the two countries. "We always said that if you disturb the peace and tranquillity how can the rest of the relationship go forward?" To a question, Jaishankar indicated that India will be able to carry out patrolling in Depsang and other areas.

"So what has happened is that we reached an understanding which will allow the patrolling which you spoke about Depsang, that's not the only place," he said.

"There are other places also. The understanding to my knowledge is that we will be able to do the patrolling which we were doing in 2020 (prior to the standoff)," he said.

The external affairs minister said both sides have been holding negotiations to end the standoff since September 2020.

"On the one hand we had to obviously do the counter deployments, but side-by-side, we have been negotiating.

"We have been negotiating since September of 2020 when I met my Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Moscow," he said.

"It has been a very patient process," Jaishankar said, adding maybe "it was more complicated than it could have and should have been".

Jaishankar said there was peace and tranquility along the LAC before 2020 and "hopefully we will be able to come back to that".

"That was our major concern because we always said that if you disturb the peace and tranquility, how do you expect the rest of the relationship to go forward." On the difficult negotiations, Jaishankar said, "At various points of time, people almost gave up, you can say." PTI