Indo-China Border: Verification Patrolling Begins In Ladakh’s Demchok & Depsang, Says MEA – News18

Last Updated:November 02, 2024, 21:48 IST

The development came days after India and China arrived at a border patrolling pact to disengage from the two friction points along the LAC.

The Ministry of External Affairs on Saturday confirmed that the verification patrolling has commenced on mutually agreed terms along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Demchok and Depsang in Eastern Ladakh.

The development came 10 days after India and China arrived at a border patrolling pact to disengage from the two friction points along the LAC.

MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal in his weekly press briefing said, “On October 21, 2024, the last phase of disengagement was agreed upon between India and China. As a result, verification patrolling has commenced on mutually agreed terms in Demchok and Depsang. We will keep you updated.”

Earlier on Friday, the Indian Army sources had confirmed that “coordinated patrolling” began in the Demchok area and would soon commence in the Depsang Plains.

The MEA spokesperson further elaborated that “relevant dialogue mechanisms at the level of foreign ministers and other officials will be used to stabilise and rebuild bilateral relations.”

Earlier, Foreign Minister S Jaishankar had said that the foreign ministers and national security advisors (NSAs) of India and China would meet to decide on the fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable solution to the border issue.

At a meeting in Russia’s Kazan on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit on October 23, two days after the Indian government’s announcement of the border patrolling pact, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping had welcomed the agreement between their countries on patrolling along the LAC as part of a process they hoped would eventually lead to disengagement and de-escalation.

In a breakthrough development, India had announced that it had reached an agreement with China on patrolling along the LAC in eastern Ladakh. The agreement is anticipated to ease patrolling in the Depsang and Demchok areas, where major issues remained unresolved.

Jaishankar had said that Indian and Chinese soldiers will resume patrolling as they did before the 2020 border face-off.

Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri had said that the agreement between the two countries was finalised after several weeks of negotiations and would help resolve the issues that arose in 2020.

Ties between the two Asian giants nosedived following a fierce clash in the Galwan Valley in June 2020, marking the most serious military conflict between them in decades.

(With inputs from ANI)