ADVERTISEMENT

India and China Agree to Resolve Border Standoff

India and China Agree to Resolve Border Standoff

(Bloomberg) -- India and China agreed to resolve a current border standoff peacefully in line with various bilateral agreements and will keep each other engaged as talks remains deadlocked.

“The two sides will continue military and diplomatic engagements to resolve the situation and to ensure peace and tranquility in the border areas,” India’s ministry of external affairs said in a statement.

A meeting was held between Indian officials based in Leh and their Chinese counterparts in the Chushul-Moldo region on Saturday, the release said.

Talks were deadlocked and a resolution will come in the long haul, Indian officials with the knowledge of the matter said. There will be no reduction of troops or let-up in operational preparedness along the border, the officials said, asking not to be identified citing rules on speaking to the media.

“It appears that the current border tense will be resolved peacefully, however, one cannot predict the time-frame,” said General (retd.) S L Narasimhan, a member of the National Security Council Advisory Board which in part advises the government on China.

The two armies had engaged in a standoff lasting more than two months in the Doklam plateau in 2017.

Both sides are currently on high alert at two locations along the Line of Actual Control -- the 3,488 kilometer (2,167 mile) unmarked boundary between India and China, and have rushed additional troops to the border.

They have been facing each other at the Galwan River, which was one of the early triggers of the 1962 India-China war, and at the disputed Pangong Tso -- a glacial lake at 14,000 feet in the Tibetan plateau, portions of which are claimed by both.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.