India, China agree to work urgently to withdraw troops on disputed border

India and China have agreed to work urgently to achieve the withdrawal of tens of thousands of troops stationed along their disputed border in a long-running standoff, India’s government said.

Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar met his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, on Thursday on the sidelines of Association of Southeast Asian Nations meetings in Laos, where they stressed the need for an early resolution of outstanding issues along the disputed Line of Actual Control, the long Himalayan border shared by the two Asian giants.

The line 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.

Ties between the two countries 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.

Both India and China have withdrawn troops from some areas on the northern and southern banks of Pangong Tso, Gogra and Galwan Valley, but continue to maintain extra troops as part of a multitier deployment.

The two foreign ministers “agreed on the need to work with purpose and urgency to achieve complete disengagement at the earliest,” according to an Indian statement late Thursday, which added that peace on the border is essential for restoring normalcy in ties between the two countries.

Jaishankar in his opening remarks said the border issues have “cast a shadow” over India-China ties for the last four years despite considerable efforts by both sides to solve them.

“The state of the border will necessarily be reflected on the state of our ties,” he said, according to the statement.

Wang stressed that improving China-India ties is beneficial for both countries as well as for other nations, China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported. The two sides agreed to work together to maintain peace in border areas and push for progress, it said.

India and China fought a war over their border in 1962. The Line of Actual Control divides the areas of physical control rather than territorial claims. According to India, the de facto border is 3,488 kilometers (2,167 miles) long, but China claims a considerably shorter figure.

Top Indian and Chinese army commanders have held several rounds of talks since the military clash to discuss the disengagement of troops from areas of tension.