Jaishankar, China counterpart review disengagement at LAC

NEW DELHI: External affairs minister S Jaishankar said on Thursday he had spoken to his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi to review the disengagement of troops of the two countries in Ladakh sector of the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

This was the first formal contact between Jaishankar and Wang since they met on the margins of a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meeting in Moscow on September 10 last year, and it came days after India and China pulled back frontline troops from strategic heights around Pangong Lake along with armoured vehicles and artillery.

“Spoke to State Councilor & Foreign Minister Wang Yi this afternoon. Discussed the implementation of our Moscow Agreement and reviewed the status of disengagement,” Jaishankar tweeted, without giving details.

There was no official word on the contact from the Chinese side.

The “Moscow Agreement” that Jaishankar referred to was a fivepoint agreement that the two sides had concluded during the meeting of the foreign ministers in the Russian capital. A joint statement issued after that meeting had said the two sides would be guided by the consensus of the leaders of India and China, including not allowing differences to become disputes.

Jaishankar and Wang had also agreed that border troops would “continue their dialogue, quickly disengage, maintain proper distance and ease tensions”, and that the two sides would abide by all existing agreements and protocols on border management and “avoid any action that could escalate matters”.