China: Without directly referring to the Ladakh crisis, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson says that both the countries should jointly safeguard peace and security in the border areas.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian
China: The Chinese foreign ministry has said that maintaining peace along the disputed boundary and deepening strategic trust with India is one of the country’s diplomatic priorities.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian made the statement, which was published on the ministry’s website on Monday while responding to a question from the official Xinhua news agency on China’s current diplomatic work and priorities.
Lijian in the statement spoke about Beijing’s plans with regard to maintaining bilateral ties with the US, Russia, EU, Japan and India amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
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This happened two days after India during military talks requested the neighbouring country to pull back its soldiers and stop development exercises on the Depsang-Daulat Beg Oldie division in eastern Ladakh. An engagement among Indian and Ladakh troops in the Galwan valley in the district had prompted the passing of 20 Indian officers in June this year.
HT reported that the Chinese foreign ministry in a statement issued to it had said that the process of disengagement at the border was not complete and that the frontline forces are still communicating on “controlling the situation”.
“At present, the two sides have disengaged in most of the border areas and will continue to coordinate and consult through military and diplomatic channels to further ease the tension and maintain peace and tranquillity in the border areas,” according to a report in HT.
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India as of late had dismissed China’s claims that its soldiers have completely disengaged from most areas, in spite of the fact that there has been some movement on that front.
External affairs ministry spokesperson Anurag Srivastava had acknowledged there has been “some progress” towards disengagement and de-escalation along the LAC though the process is far from complete.
