India says it has reached agreement with China on border patrol

New Delhi: An agreement has been reached with China on border patrol, the Indian foreign secretary said, adding that this could help achieve disengagement and resolve the military conflict along the border by 2020.

Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said on Monday that after several rounds of talks between Indian and Chinese diplomatic and military negotiators over the past few weeks, the two sides had reached an agreement to conduct patrols along the Line of Actual Control (LOC) in the China-India border area to achieve disengagement. And address the issues that arise in these areas in 2020.

China has yet to respond to Misri's comments.

The border between India and China in the Himalayas is unclear. In July 2020, at least 24 soldiers on both sides were killed in a military standoff along the border. Since then, Sino-Indian relations have deteriorated.

Since the conflict began, diplomatic and military talks to end the standoff have been slow and commercial ties have been damaged, with New Delhi stepping up scrutiny of investments by Chinese companies and suspending some major projects.

Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Jaishankar meets with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Kazakhstan in July. The two sides agreed to step up negotiations to resolve the boundary question at an early date.