Diplomats from India and China are holding talks to implement the five-point consensus reached earlier this month by the foreign ministers of the two countries to resolve border tensions, China’s Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.
High-level diplomats from the two countries are meeting via video link under the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination (WMCC) on border issues.
The last time the WMCC met was on August 20. The two countries could not bridge the differences over the disengagement of the two armies at the meeting.
“Currently, China and India are holding the 19th meeting of the WMCC on border issues. The main issues being discussed are how to implement the five-point consensus reached in Moscow (on September 10) by the two foreign ministers to resolve the outstanding problems on the ground and alleviate the situation along the border. ” said the spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry. , Wang Wenbin.
Wang was responding to a question about the WMCC meeting from Chinese state media.
The WMCC meeting is co-chaired by Deputy Secretary (East Asia) Naveen Srivastava of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Hong Liang, Director General of the Boundary and Oceanic Department of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
This was the agency’s sixth virtual meeting since the clash along the disputed border came to light in May.
In his response at a regular ministry press conference on Wednesday, Wang referred to the meeting between Foreign Minister S Jaishankar and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the sidelines of a meeting of the Organization of Shanghai Cooperation (SCO) in Moscow on September 10.
The two sides had reached an agreement on five points during the talks between Jaishankar and Wang, which included a dialogue aimed at a quick disconnect, maintaining an adequate distance between the troops of the two sides and easing tensions, respecting all agreements and protocols on border management, and working on new confidence-building measures once the situation improves.
The stark differences between New Delhi and Beijing have been made public this week, with India dismissing China’s claims that it meets a 1959 Chinese definition of the Royal Line of Control (LAC), the theoretical alignment that divides the two. countries.
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