Sudha Ramachandran
Almost four-and-half years after Indian and Chinese troops clashed violently at Galwan Valley in Ladakh, resulting in the first fatal confrontation between the two countries along their disputed border since 1975, the India-China standoff in the Himalayas appears to be reaching an end.
“Agreement has been arrived at on patrolling arrangements along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the India-China border areas, leading to disengagement and a resolution of the issues that had arisen in these areas in 2020,” India’s Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri told journalists in New Delhi on Monday. Misri was briefing the media on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s upcoming visit to Kazan, Russia for the BRICS summit on October 22 and 23.
The timing of the announcement is significant.
It came just a day before the Indian prime minister leaves for Russia to attend the BRICS meeting, which will be attended by Chinese President Xi Jinping, among others.
Misri didn’t confirm if a meeting between Modi and Xi on the sidelines of the BRICS summit was in the cards. But he didn’t rule out the possibility of such a meeting either. Although the BRICS summit is “a multilateral event,” he said, “there is always a provision for bilateral meetings on the sidelines.” There have been “a number of requests for bilateral meetings,” he said, without elaborating if a meeting with Xi figured among these.
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