India-China agree on ‘patrolling arrangements’ and resolution of the military standoff, says Vikram Misri

Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri addresses a press conference in New Delhi on October 21, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

In a dramatic development, India and China have reached an agreement on “patrolling arrangements ” and a resolution of the military standoff at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) , the government announced on Monday (October 21, 2024). The patrolling arrangement agreement extends beyond the areas along the LAC where there has already been a disengagement of military personnel over the past few years, and include the so far unresolved areas of Demchok and Depsang, sources told The Hindu, indicating that the India-China standoff since April 2020 is now expected to be resolved.

While the MEA did not give further details of the agreement, and whether there would be a reversion to the status quo pre-2020, and whether the “buffer zones” more recently created would continue to exist for patrolling purposes”, Mr. Misri said that the two sides had “reached an agreement on the issues that were being discussed”

The announcement, by Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, came amidst a media briefing on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Russia for the BRICS summit on Tuesday which he will attend along with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

“Over the last several weeks, Indian and Chinese diplomatic and military negotiators have been in close contact with each other in a variety of forums, and as a result of these discussions, agreement has been arrived at on patrolling arrangements along the line of actual control in the India-China border areas, leading to disengagement and a resolution of the issues that had arisen in these areas in 2020,” Mr. Misri told journalists adding that the two sides would now take the “next steps” on this.

The timing of the India-China agreement announcement, just a day before the BRICS Summit indicates that a meeting between Mr. Modi and Mr. Xi on the side-lines, that has been speculated about is now expected to take place. Although the two leaders met as many as 18 times prior to the Galwan clashes in June 2020 , where 20 Indian soldiers were killed, they have spoken only twice since then, on the side-lines of the G-20 summit in Indonesia in 2022, and the BRICS summit in South Africa in 2023.

 Mr. Misri did not confirm a meeting between Mr. Modi and Mr. Xi , he said that government is discussing the scheduling of a number of bilateral meetings in Kazan, the venue of the BRICS summit.

“[BRICS] is a multilateral event, though, of course, there is always a provision for bilateral meetings on the sidelines. We are currently looking into the overall program of the Prime Minister. There are a number of requests for bilateral meetings, and we will update you on the bilaterals as they evolve, as soon as feasible,” Mr. Misri told journalists when asked, not denying that a meeting with the Chinese leader was among those.

Mr. Misri, who was previously India’s Ambassador to China, and was no doubt, a key part of the recent negotiations, did not give further details of the agreement between both sides. He referred to recent meetings that had led to the breakthrough, which include two meetings between External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and Chinese FM Wang Yi in June-July, two meetings of the WMCC mechanism of diplomatic and military officials in July-August, followed by a meeting between NSA Ajit Doval and Mr. Wang, who is also the Special Representative on border talks in September. These were followed by intense negotiations of military commanders and MEA officials in the last few weeks. With Mr. Modi and Mr. Xi’s travels to Russia for the BRICS confirmed, a deadline appeared to have emerged for the negotiations to conclude with a result.