BEIJING, 26 Oct: China has said that the disengagement of troops in eastern Ladakh by the Chinese and Indian armies is going on “smoothly” following a recent agreement between the two nations.
On 23 October, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping endorsed the agreement on patrolling and disengagement along the LAC in eastern Ladakh during their bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in Kazan in Russia.
“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,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian told a media briefing here on Friday.
India announced the agreement to pull back troops from the friction points on 21 October and China confirmed a day later, saying the two sides have reached “resolutions on relevant matters” and Beijing will work with New Delhi to implement these resolutions.
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 28-29 October, 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.
The sources said that patrolling will begin at these points once the disengagement that began two days back is completed and both sides will move their respective troops and dismantle temporary structures.
Eventually, they added, the areas and patrolling status are expected to be moved back to the pre-April 2020 level. (PTI)