INDIA, CHINA border disengagement,india china border underway

Indian army convoy

INDIAN, CHINA Border Disengagement

India and China said on Monday that they had made progress disengaging frontline troops from a months-long standoff along a disputed a part of their border where a brawl in June left 20 Indian soldiers dead.

Special representatives on the border issue, India's national security advisor Ajit Doval and China's secretary of state Wang Yi spoke by phone on Sunday about the problems along the frontier referred to as the road of Actual Control (LAC), consistent with India's foreign ministry.

"The representatives agreed that maintenance of peace and tranquility within the India-China border areas was essential for the further development of our bilateral relations and to finish the continued disengagement process along the LAC expeditiously," the ministry said on Monday during a statement.

An Indian defense ministry official told The Associated Press that Chinese troops were observed removing tents and structures near the Galway Valley along the disputed border.
He spoke on the condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to talk to reporters.

Asked a few Chinese withdrawal, China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said only that the 2 sides made positive progress in disengaging frontline troops and easing the border situation with effective measures during a third round of military talks on June 30.

Both sides blamed one another for the June 15 clash within the remote river valley within the Karakoram mountains of Ladakh where India is building a strategic road connecting the region to an airstrip on the brink of China.

Soldiers fought in hand-to-hand combat with fists and clubs, but not with firearms, deferring to an agreement to not use them. India said 20 of its soldiers were killed, as were Chinese soldiers. Chinese officials haven't confirmed any casualties.

Chris Biggers, the senior analyst at the geospatial intelligence company HawkEye 360, has said a review of satellite images showed China was moving construction equipment, soldiers, and military hardware toward the LAC before and after the clash.

China and India fought a 1962 war over their disputed border, a neighborhood that covers nearly 3,500 kilometers. That fighting led to an uneasy truce and therefore the creation of the LAC, which stretches from Ladakh within the north to the Indian state of Sikkim within the northeast.

The two countries are trying to settle their border dispute since the first 1990s, without success.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made an unannounced visit on Friday to a military base in Ladakh, telling troops that the times of expansionism are over.

“Expansionism creates danger for world peace. this is often an era of development. Expansionist forces have either lost or forced to show back," he said in clear regard to China.

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