India and China made 'some progress' in disengagement, says EAM S Jaishankar

Brisbane, Nov 03: India and China have made "some progress" in disengagement, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Sunday, describing the development as a "welcome" step.

His comment comes days after Indian and Chinese troops completed disengagement at two friction points at Demchok and Depsang Plains in eastern Ladakh. The Indian Army commenced verification patrolling at Depsang, while patrolling at Demchok had begun on Friday.

"In terms of India and China, we have made some progress. You know, our relations were very, very disturbed for reasons all of you know. We have made some progress in what we call disengagement," Jaishankar said while responding to a question during an interaction with the Indian diaspora here.

"There are very large numbers of Chinese troops deployed along the Line of Actual Control who were not there before 2020 and we, in turn, have counter-deployed. There are other aspects of the relationship which also got affected during during this period. So clearly, we have to see after the disengagement, what is the direction we go. But we do think the disengagement is a welcome step. It opens up the possibility that you know, other steps could happen," said the minister.

He said that the expectation after Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Chinese President Xi Jinping in Russia last month was that "both the national security advisor and myself, we would meet our counterpart. So that's really where things are".

On October 21, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said in Delhi that an agreement had been finalised between India and China following negotiations over the past several weeks and that it would lead to a resolution of the issues that arose in 2020.

The agreement was firmed up on patrolling and disengagement of troops along the LAC in eastern Ladakh, a breakthrough to end the over four-year standoff.

The ties between the two Asian giants nosedived following a fierce clash in the Galwan Valley in June 2020 that marked the most serious military conflict between the two sides in decades.

Jaishankar arrived here earlier in the day on the first leg of his two-nation tour which will also take him to Singapore.