Jaishankar confirms what Misri said: 'Disengagements with China have been completed'

India and China have completed military disengagement in eastern Ladakh, said Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar.

The comment comes within hours of an announcement by Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri that India and China have reached an agreement regarding the stand-off in eastern Ladakh.

Speaking at an event organised by NDTV, Jaishankar on Monday (October 21) confirmed Misri’s announcement.

Jaishankar said, “What the Foreign Secretary has said, I can also say….We have reached an aggreement….We can say that disengagements with China has been completed.”

Jaishankar further said that Indian and Chinese soldiers will be able to resume patrolling in the way they had been doing before the border stand-off began in May 2020.

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Earlier in the day, Misri said that India and China have reached an agreement regarding the patrolling arrangements at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh. The LAC is the de-facto India-China border.

“As a result of discussions that have taken place over the past several weeks, Indian and Chinese diplomatic and military negotiators have been in close contact with each-other in a variety of forums and, as a result of these discussions, an agreements has been arrived at on patrolling arrangements at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the India-China border area, leading to disengagement and a resolution of issues that had risen in these areas in 2020,” said Misri.

The India-China stand-off in eastern Ladakh began in early 2020 when Chinese soldiers crossed over and attacked Indian personnel along the LAC. The incursions, and the Galwan clashes in June 2020 in which 20 Indian soldiers were killed, plunged the bilateral relationship to its lowest since 1962 when the two nations fought a war. While India termed peace and tranquility at the border as the basis of the broader bilateral relationship, China has insisted that the bilateral relationship should not be affected by the border tensions.

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Misri and Jaishankar’s comments come as Prime Minister Narendra Modi is visiting Russia to attend the BRICS Summit. Chinese President Xi Jinping is also attending the summit.

In the wake of top-level engagements between India and China, it has been reported for some time that, if substantial progress is announced regarding the resolution of the Ladakh dispute, then a bilateral meeting may take place between Modi and Xi on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit.

Even as Jaishankar confirmed Misri’s announcements, none of them offered any details about disengagement.

Moreover, neither Jaishankar nor Misri said anything about the broader de-escalation in Ladakh.

While disengagement refers to troops physically disengaging from a particular location in contention, de-escalation refers to the broader withdrawal of troops and war-waging equipment like tanks, armoured vehicles, warplanes, and artillery guns, from the broader theatre of conflict.

The last round of disengagement happened in 2022 when troops withdrew from Pangong Tso, PP-15, PP-17, and Galwan Valley.

The announcement of the disengagement and resumption of patrolling has come after a series of op-level meetings. In recent months, both Jaishankar and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and two rounds of meetings of Working Mechanism for Consultation & Coordination on India-China Border Affairs (WMCC) also took place.