India and China have completed withdrawal from the two disputed areas of Depsang and Demchok in eastern Ladakh and the two sides have started joint patrolling. India Today TV has exclusively obtained information from top government sources on how the non-negotiation talks were held, and what prompted Beijing to agree to end the four-year standoff between the two countries.
India and China have participated in 21 rounds of Corp Commander-level talks on non-alignment, but such talks have repeatedly stalled, top government sources said. In such a situation, channels of dialogue were opened at the diplomatic level and India remained firm in its stand on non-participation in Depsang and Demchok and wanted China to return to its 2020 positions, they added.
Government sources said that India has made it clear to China in military and official talks that New Delhi wants the April 2020 status quo to be restored at any cost in order to expel them.
China was confused by India’s participation in the BRICS, SCO and Quad summits and faced pressure after the successful arrangement of the G20 Summit by New Delhi, they said.
India Today TV also learned that India was in no rush for the economic slowdown to happen under the current circumstances. New Delhi wanted to maintain military and political pressure on Beijing, and the military infrastructure that India built in Ladakh over the past five years could not be removed suddenly, senior government sources said.
Following high-level talks between National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in St Petersburg, both countries agreed to accelerate efforts to resolve outstanding border disputes and improve bilateral relations.
A month before the border started, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said that 75 percent of the border issues have been resolved.
On October 21, India announced that it had reached an agreement with China to patrol the LAC in eastern Ladakh, a major breakthrough in ending the four-year-old military standoff, which began after Indian and Chinese armies clashed. Galwan Valley in May 2020.
China also confirmed the surveillance agreement, with Beijing saying the decision was made on “relevant issues” and that it would work with New Delhi to implement the decisions.
On October 23, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping held bilateral talks after five years on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in Kazan, Russia, where they accepted a border agreement.
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