India says it reached deal with China on army patrols along disputed border

The pact is part of a resolution to the four-year standoff at the contested border areas, India’s foreign ministry says.

India and China have agreed to a pact on military patrols along their disputed border in the Himalayas that could lead to the resolution of a conflict that began in 2020, according to the Indian Ministry of External Affairs.

“Over the last several weeks, Indian and Chinese diplomats and military negotiators have been in close contact with each other, and as a result of these discussions, an agreement has been arrived at on patrolling arrangements along the LAC in the India-China border leading to the disengagements and a resolution of the issues that had arisen in 2020,” Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri told reporters in New Delhi on Monday, referring to the Line of Actual Control notional demarcation line between the two countries.

The LAC is a 3,488km-long (2,167-mile) border in the Himalayas shared by the two Asian giants, with China claiming a considerably shorter portion. It 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 considering it part of its Tibet region, and the two fought a border war in 1962.

Misri did not specify whether the pact means the withdrawal of the tens of thousands of additional troops stationed by the two countries along their disputed border in the northern Ladakh region since their armies clashed in 2020 in a significant escalation.

There was no immediate comment from Beijing.

The announcement was made on the eve of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Russia for the BRICS summit, which involves China and other major developing economies. Local media