China and India have agreed to continue to maintain peace and tranquility in the border areas, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.
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The 30th meeting of the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on Border Affairs between China and India was held in New Delhi on Wednesday.
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“The parties agreed to strictly adhere to previously reached agreements and continue to maintain peace and tranquility in the border areas,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement following the meeting.
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It is noted that the parties also agreed to maintain communication through diplomatic and military channels, strengthen the formation of a negotiation mechanism, speed up the negotiation process in order to resolve the current situation on the border as soon as possible, and promote the healthy and stable development of relations between China and India.
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India and China have a long-standing territorial dispute over nearly 60,000 square kilometers in the northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, as well as a swathe of mountainous territory in northern Kashmir.
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The Line of Actual Control, which replaces the border between countries in this region, runs in the Ladakh region. In the fall of 1962, this dispute even escalated into a border war.
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A new escalation began in Ladakh in May 2020, when a series of clashes between the military of China and India took place in the Pangong Lake area, after which New Delhi and Beijing increased their military presence in the region. In February 2021, most of the troops moved to the region were withdrawn and the parties continued negotiations. At the beginning of September 2022, India and China also carried out a new stage of withdrawal of troops on the border, but did not resolve all issues on it.
