2 Jaishankar-Yi Meetings, 52 Diplomatic & Military Talks: How India, China Reached LAC Disengagement Agreement

Two crucial meetings between Foreign Minister S Jaishankar and China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi in July, 31 rounds of diplomatic meetings and 21 rounds of military talks over four years paved the way for India and China to achieve an agreement over disengagement at the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri on Monday said both sides have agreed to restart patrolling on the LAC, which is leading to disengagement and a resolution of the issues that had arisen in these areas in 2020. He said the diplomatic and military negotiators from both sides had been in close touch in recent weeks. Government sources called it a “big development".

The statement came just a day ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit for the BRICS Summit to Kazan, Russia, where he is expected to hold a bilateral meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

There were seven points of conflict on the LAC since the Galwan clash in 2020, five of which had seen disengagement, but the troops from both sides remained in an eyeball-to-eyeball conflict in Depsang Plains and Demchock. The issue also became a major political flashpoint in India with the Congress attacking the Modi government for alleged presence of Chinese troops on Indian soil.

JAISHANKAR’S TWIN MESSAGES IN JULY LAID THE GROUNDWORK

The foreign ministers of both countries met twice in July, where the urgency of the disengagement process was underlined, government sources say.

The first meeting was on the sidelines of the SCO Council of Heads of State Meeting in Asthana, Kazakhstan, on July 4. “The two ministers agreed that the prolongation of the current situation in the border areas is not in the interest of either side. EAM highlighted the need to redouble efforts to achieve complete disengagement from the remaining areas in Eastern Ladakh," the Indian side had said, after the meeting.

The two ministers met again on July 25 in Vientiane, Lao PDR on the sidelines of the ASEAN-related Foreign Ministers’ meeting to lay the groundwork. “Both the ministers agreed on the need to work with purpose and urgency to achieve complete disengagement at the earliest," an Indian statement had said about the meeting.

The meeting also resolved to hold an “early meeting" of the Working Mechanism on Consultation and Coordination on India-China Border Affairs (WMCC) to take the discussions forward. This particular meeting of WMCC happened in Delhi on July 31 and again in China on August 29.

“In line with the guidance provided by two Foreign Ministers’ meetings in Astana and Vientiane in July 2024 to accelerate their discussion, and building on the WMCC meeting held last month, the two sides had a frank, constructive and forward-looking exchange of views on the situation along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) to narrow down the differences and find early resolution of the outstanding issues. For this, they further agreed for intensified contact through diplomatic and military channels," the Indian side had said after the August 29 meeting in Beijing.

There were total of 31 rounds of talks of the Working Mechanism for Consultation & Coordination on India-China Border Affairs (WMCC) and 21 rounds of India-China Corps Commander Level meetings over the past four years.

The opposition could now ask for more details about the said disengagement agreements arrived at between India and China. Meanwhile, the Modi government has attacked the Congress for squandering thousands of square kilometers of land to China under the Nehru rule.