India, China just started pulling back troops, says External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar

India and China have “just commenced” pulling back troops from the scenes of the face-offs along the disputed boundary between the two nations, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Saturday.

“What just happened is that we have agreed on the need to disengage because the troops on both sides are deployed very close to each other. So, there is a disengagement and de-escalation process which has been agreed upon,” he said, during an online interaction session at the “India Global Week” – an event held by the India Inc. Group.

“It (the process of disengagement of troops) has just commenced. It is very much a work in progress,” said minister, apparently indicating that the two sides would take time to completely resolve the eight-week-long stand-off between the Indian Army and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA).

His comment came a day after the senior diplomats of India and China had a video conference to review the progress of “disengagement” of troops along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh.

The “disengagement” started after the Senior Commanders of the Indian Army and the Chinese PLA had agreed upon it after three rounds of meetings on June 6, 22 and 30. A two-hour-long phone-call between National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi – the Special Representatives of the two governments for boundary negotiation and strategic consultations – on July 5 added momentum to the process.