‘Peace in border areas essential’: EAM S Jaishankar holds meet with Chinese counterpart

The external affairs minister S Jaishankar on Wednesday held a one-hour bilateral meeting with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meeting in Dushanbe.

“Discussions focused on the outstanding issues along the LAC in the Western sector,” the Jaishankar said on Twitter.

“Highlighted that unilateral change of status quo is not acceptable. Full restoration and maintenance of peace and tranquility in border areas are essential for development of our ties,” he added.

The external affairs minister further said both of them agreed to hold an early meeting of the senior military commanders.

Jaishankar and Wang have spoken twice this year — in February and April. They discussed the status of LAC disengagement and implementation of the Moscow agreement and also agreed to establish a hotline for timely communication.

India has repeatedly emphasised on the need to implement the Moscow agreement that refers to the 5-point consensus Jaishankar and Wang arrived at last year, again on the margins of an SCO meeting, to resolve the border situation.

India and China completed disengagement in the Pangong Tso area in February this year but there’s been little headway at remaining friction points.

While China continues to blame India’s alleged troop build-up for the LAC stand-off, India says Beijing’s violation of bilateral agreements is the reason for the border strife.