Posted By: Abhinav Gupta
New Delhi: Jagran News Desk: Hitting back at China for blaming India for the border standoff between the countries, the MEA on Friday said that the situation created in the last six months was a result of “action by Chinese side”.
Reacing to Beijing’s remarks on the military standoff between the two Asian giants, the Ministry of External Affairs said that China sought to effect “unilateral change in status along LAC in eastern Ladakh”.
It said that three Chinese actions along the LAC in eastern Ladakh were in violation of bilateral agreements and protocols on ensuring peace and tranquillity in border areas.
Expecting that China “matches words with actions”, the MEA said that it had taken note of China’s statement that it strictly observes bilateral agreements and is committed to resolve border issue through talks.
It said that the core issue remains that both sides follow various bilateral agreements and protocols in their entirety.
“The core issues, as I mentioned last week remains that both sides need to strictly follow the various bilateral agreements and protocols in their entirety, including the 1993 and 1996 agreement on maintenance of peace and tranquillity along the LAC in the border areas, which require that there should not be amassing of troops, each side should strictly abide by and respect the LAC and should not take any unilateral action to alter it,” the MEA spokesperson said.
The two sides have continued to maintain communication through diplomatic and military channels. It is our expectation that the further discussions will help both sides to achieve an agreement on a mutually acceptable solution for ensuring complete disengagement in all friction points along the LAC in the Western sector and full restoration of peace and tranquility as early as possible,” he said.
The two countries have held eight rounds of Corps Commander-level talks to resolve the military standoff in eastern Ladakh. However the talks have not yielded any concrete outcome yet to ease the border tensions.
On Thursday, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said China has given India “five differing explanations” for deploying large forces at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and the violation of bilateral pacts has “very significantly damaged” their relationship.
Reacting to Jaishankar’s remarks, a senior Chinese official said that Beijing is committed to resolving the border standoff through dialogue but was also firmly committed to safeguard its territorial sovereignty. He also underlined that joint efforts were needed to maintain good relations between China and India.
*English Jagran*
