Beijing/New Delhi, Oct 26 (FN Agency) China has said that the disengagement process between Indian and Chinese troops in eastern Ladakh is “going on smoothly”, in keeping with the agreements reached between both sides. The Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said at a briefing: “In accordance with the resolutions that China and India reached recently on issues concerning the border area, the Chinese and Indian frontier troops are engaged in relevant work, which is going smoothly at the moment.” Meeting in Kazan, Russia, on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit on Wednesday October 23, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping endorsed the agreement reached between the two sides on patrolling and disengagement along the LAC.
Meanwhile, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, speaking at an event in Pune today, said that it is still early for normalisation of India-China relations and it will take time to rebuild a degree of trust and willingness to work together. He said that during the meeting between PM Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Kazan it was decided that the foreign ministers and National Security Advisors of the two countries would meet and take it forward. “If today we have reached where we have…One is because of the very determined effort on our part to stand our ground and make our point. The military was there (at the LAC) in very, very unimaginable conditions to defend the country, and the military did its part and diplomacy did its part,” the EAM said. He said that India has improved its infrastructure along the border in the past few years, and added that in the earlier years, the border infrastructure was neglected, which added to the problem.
“Today we have put in five times more resources annually than there used to be a decade ago, which is showing results and enabling the military to actually be effectively deployed. The combination of these has led to where it is,” he said. On Monday, India said it had reached an agreement with China on patrolling along the LAC in eastern Ladakh, ending the over four-year-long military standoff. Following the agreement, the two countries have begun troop disengagement at the two friction points at Demchok and Depsang Plains in eastern Ladakh and this process is likely to be completed by October 28-29, Indian Army sources said on Friday. The agreement was arrived at only for these two friction points, and “talks are still underway” for other areas, they said.