External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar talked about the border agreement between India and China and the withdrawal of troops in Depsang and Demchok. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said that the withdrawal of troops in Depsang and Demchok in Ladakh is the first step towards resolving the India-China border standoff and returning to the patrolling situation of 2020.
Jaishankar said, ‘There has been an agreement on patrolling and withdrawal of troops in Depsang and Demchok. It is clear that it will take time to implement. This is an issue of disengagement and patrolling which means that our armies had come very close to each other and now they have gone back to their base. We hope that the situation of 2020 will be restored’.
The External Affairs Minister said that the completion of disengagement is the first step. The next step is to reduce tension which will not happen until India is convinced that the same is happening on the other side. He said, ‘After reducing tension, how to manage the borders will be discussed. However, Jaishankar also said that the successful agreement with China on patrolling the LAC does not mean that the issues between the two countries have been resolved’.
Jaishankar said that it is not that everything has been resolved, but the withdrawal of troops is the first phase. We have managed to reach this stage. Now our army will be able to patrol Depsang and Demchok. Also, now we will be able to look at the next phase. Jaishankar said that it will still take some time for relations to normalize.
The situation on the border has been turbulent since 2020, which is natural to have a negative impact on overall relations. Jaishankar said that since September 2020, India has been in talks with China to find a solution to the border standoff. At the same time, he credited the army for the successful agreement with China, which worked in “very unimaginable” circumstances and showed clever diplomacy.
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