India and China on Tuesday reiterated their resolve to defuse tension at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Eastern Ladakh at the earliest and agreed to sustain the tempo of talks at the diplomatic and military levels in this regard. The two sides also called for early meeting of the Corps Commanders. The two commanders, so far, have held 15 rounds of talks since face-offs began in May 2020.
This was the main takeaway from the diplomatic level talks held between the two sides on Tuesday under the aegis of the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Co-ordination(WMCC) on India-China border affairs.
The two sides reviewed the situation along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Western Sector of India-China border areas. They recalled that since the last meeting of the WMCC in November 2021, both sides have held the 14th and 15th meetings of the Senior Corps Commanders in January and March 2022 respectively.
Foreign Minister of China Wang Yi had also visited India in March 2022 and held discussions with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and the National Security Advisor(NSA)Ajit Doval.
It was the first visit by any Chinese minister to New Delhi since trouble erupted at the LAC in May 2020. It escalated into a major crisis and even now stand-offs are persisting between the armies of the countries at some friction point for the last two years.
Giving details of the latest round of WMCC parleys, officials said here the two sides exchanged views on the current situation along the LAC in the Western Sector in Eastern Ladakh.
They agreed that as instructed by the two Foreign Ministers, both sides should continue the discussions through diplomatic and military channels to resolve the remaining issues along the LAC at the earliest so as to create conditions for restoration of normalcy in bilateral relations.
In this context, they agreed to hold the next (16th) round of the Senior Commanders meeting at an early date to achieve the objective of complete disengagement from all friction points along the LAC in the Western Sector in accordance with the existing bilateral agreements and protocols.
This was the 24th Meeting of the WMCC and the Indian delegation was led by Additional Secretary (East Asia) from the Ministry of External Affairs. The Director General of the Boundary and Oceanic Department of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs led the Chinese delegation.
At present, more than 50,000 troops each from both the sides are facing other at some friction points.