China and India announced they have reached an agreement on patrols along the de facto boundary dividing their disputed border regions, which in recent years have seen violent clashes.
The line of actual control (LAC), established after the 1962 Sino-Indian War, runs through various contested areas and is not always clearly defined. Tensions escalated sharply in 2020 when a deadly confrontation in the Galwan Valley resulted in the deaths of 20 Indian soldiers, with China saying four of its troops had perished. This incident was followed by additional skirmishes in 2021 and 2022, though no fatalities were reported, and drove both countries to step up their military presence and infrastructure along the demarcation.
Local media cited India’s foreign secretary, Vikram Misri, as saying on Monday the two sides had reached a deal after weeks of talks.
”An agreement has been arrived at on patrolling arrangements along the line of actual control in the India-China border areas,” said Misri, who was India’s ambassador to China during the 2020 Ladakh region confrontation.
This has set into motion disengagement and ”eventually a resolution of the issues that had arisen in these areas in 2020,” he added. Läs artikel