EAM Jaishankar discuss LAC disengagement with Chinese minister

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on Thursday spoke to each other on phone and reviewed the mutual withdrawal of troops by both sides to end the 10-month-long military stand-off along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh.

“Discussed the implementation of our Moscow Agreement and reviewed the status of disengagement,” Jaishankar tweeted after talking to Wang.

The Indian Army and the Chinese PLA have already completed the withdrawal of front-line troops from the face-off points on both the northern and southern banks of Pangong Tso.

The two sides on February 20 last also agreed to find mutually acceptable ways to resolve the stand-off elsewhere along the LAC – the de facto boundary between the two nations in the western sector.

The external affairs minister and the Chinese foreign minister had a bilateral meeting on the sideline of a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Moscow on September 10 last year. They had reached a five-point consensus, which had led to the resumption of the talks between the senior commanders of the Indian Army and the PLA to end the stand-off along the LAC.

Read | No territory conceded under disengagement pact with China: MEA

The two sides, however, took four months to start the disengagement process, beginning with the withdrawal of front-line troops from the northern and the southern banks of Pangong Tso. The senior military commanders could finalise the plan for a mutual withdrawal of troops from both banks of the lake during the ninth round of talks on January 24.

They had another meeting on February 21, when the two sides agreed to find mutually acceptable ways to resolve the stand-off elsewhere along the LAC, like Gogra Post, Hot Springs and Depsang.