India-China standoff: India expects China to work on disengagement ahead of diplomatic talks

Ahead of Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on India-China Border Affairs (WMCC) meet on Friday, India has said it expects "Chinese side will sincerely work with us" for complete disengagement and de-escalation and "full restoration of peace and tranquillity in the border areas at the earliest".

This will be the third round of virtual WMCC in the last one month. The first round took place on June 24 and the second on July 10.

The remarks are important asdisengagement by the Chinese side has slowed. The Chinese continue to maintain positions at finger 5 of Pangong lake despite the first phase negotiations and disengagement talks that took placeat Galwan valley, Hot springs, and Gogra.

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Government sources told WION, the movement of the Chinese troops appears to be halted at the moment.

The minister of external affairs spokesperson, Anurag Shrivastava said, "respecting and strictly abiding by the LAC is the basis of peace and tranquillity in the border areas."

''Conduct of Chinese forces this year, including the deployment of large body of troops and changes in behaviour, accompanied by unjustified and untenable claims, has been in complete disregard of all the mutual agreements," he added.

He also reiterated that India is "fully committed to observing and respecting the LAC" and "will not accept any unilateral attempts to change the status quo along the LAC."

Ties between the two Asian Giants have deteriorated after the violent clashes took place between Indian and Chinese forces on June 15. They had led to the death of 20 Indian soldiers. While China also suffered casualties, it never revealed its details.

India called the Chinese action, "premeditated and planned action". Since the incident, threerounds of military talks have taken placediffuse the tensions.

One Special Representative of India and China were a part of these and they were centered around the Boundary Question led by National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.