VIENTIANE, 25 Jul: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Thursday met his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi here in Laos and emphasised the need to ensure “full respect” for the line of actual control (LAC) and past agreements to stabilise the bilateral ties.
The two leaders, who met for the second time this month, also agreed on the need to give strong guidance to complete the disengagement process.
“Met with CPC Politburo member and FM Wang Yi in Vientiane today. Continued our ongoing discussions about our bilateral relationship. The state of the border will necessarily be reflected on the state of our ties,” Jaishankar said in a post on X after meeting with Yi on the sidelines of the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meetings here.
The Jaishankar-Yi talks came amid the dragging border row in eastern Ladakh that entered its fifth year in May.
“Agreed on the need to give strong guidance to complete the disengagement process. Must ensure full respect for the LAC and past agreements. It is in our mutual interest to stabilise our ties. We should approach the immediate issues with a sense of purpose and urgency,” he added.
The two leaders had met earlier this month in the Kazakh capital city of Astana on the sidelines of the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).
India has been maintaining that its ties with China cannot be normal unless there is peace in the border areas.
The Indian and Chinese militaries have been locked in a standoff since May 2020 and a full resolution of the border row has not yet been achieved, though the two sides have disengaged from a number of friction points.
The ties between the two countries nosedived significantly following the fierce clash in the Galwan valley in June 2020 that marked the most serious military conflict between the two sides in decades.(PTI)
