India and China today agreed to earnestly implement the five-point consensus reached between the foreign ministers of the two countries for ensuring complete disengagement in all friction points along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) to further deescalate the situation arising from the military standoff in eastern Ladakh.
The two countries today held the 20th meeting of the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination (WMCC) in border areas via video conferencing.
The Indian side was led by Naveen Srivastava, Joint Secretary in-charge of China at the External Affairs Ministry while the Chinese side was headed by the Director-General of the Department of Boundary and Oceanic Affairs.
Defence personnel from the two countries were also part of their respective delegations. In separate statements, the two sides said they had candid and in-depth exchange of views on the situation along the LAC in the China-India border areas, agreed to earnestly implement the consensus reached between External Affairs minister S Jaishankar and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi during their meeting in September in Moscow on the margins of a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) engagement.
They reviewed the developments along the LAC since the last round of the WMCC held on 30 September. The two sides noted that the seventh and eighth rounds of senior commanders’ meetings held on 12 October and 6 November respectively had contributed to ensuring stability on the ground.
They decided to hold the ninth round of senior commanders’ meeting as soon as possible,properly deal with outstanding issues on the ground and jointly maintain peace and tranquillity in the border areas.
The meeting took place a day after India said it expected further discussions with China on the military stand-off in the interest of peace and tranquillity along the LAC.
“It is our expectation that further discussions will help both sides to achieve an agreement on a mutually acceptable solution for ensuring complete disengagement in all friction points along the LAC in the Western sector and full restoration of peace and tranquillity as early as possible,” External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said at a media briefing.