India says it reached a pact with China on military patrols along their disputed border

NEW DELHI (AP) — India and China have agreed to a pact on military patrols along their disputed border in the Himalayas after a standoff that began with a deadly clash in 2020, India’s foreign ministry said Monday.

Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said the pact is to lead to the “disengagement” of troops at the Line of Actual Control, the long Himalayan border shared by the two Asian giants. Misri did not specify whether it means the withdrawal of the tens of thousands of additional troops stationed by the two countries along their disputed border in northern Ladakh region, after their armies clashed in 2020.

There was no immediate comment from Beijing.

Misri said the pact was a result of several rounds of talks over the past few weeks between Indian and Chinese diplomatic and military negotiators, and that it will lead to “eventually a resolution of the issues that had arisen in these areas in 2020.”

The announcement was made on the eve of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Russia for the BRICS summit, which also involves China. Local media reported that Modi could hold talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the event.

Ties between India and China deteriorated in July 2020, after a military clash killed at least 20 Indian soldiers and four Chinese. It turned into a long-running standoff in the rugged mountainous area, where each side has stationed tens of thousands of military personnel backed by artillery, tanks and fighter jets.

The Line of Actual Control, or LAC, separates Chinese and Indian-held territories from Ladakh in the west to India’s eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, which China claims in its entirety.

Both India and China have withdrawn troops from some areas on the northern and