India calls for reciprocal action on disengagement, China says progress made by troops along LAC

New Delhi: Over two months after the Galwan Valley incident, India on Thursday called for reciprocal action on disengagement while China said progress has been made by troops on the ground at the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

The Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Anurag Shrivastava in his weekly presser reiterated that "complete disengagement requires re-deployment of troops by each side towards their regular posts on their respective sides of the LAC". He said, "It is natural that this can be done only through mutually agreed reciprocal actions and...important to bear in mind that achieving this requires agreed actions by both sides."

Last week the 18th meeting of the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on India-China Border Affairs (WMCC) took place during which focus remained on disengagement in Eastern Ladakh. Not just at the diplomatic level, but at the military level also both sides are in touch. 

Meanwhile, Spokesperson of Chinese Defence Ministry Senior Colonel Wu Qian claimed "progress has been made" on disengagement by frontline troops and "maintaining peace and stability in the border area is not only conducive to both sides' respective development, but also to regional and world peace and stability".

Government sources, when asked about the "progress" as claimed by Chinese, said, no fresh disengagement has happened by the Chinese side on the ground. While several areas including the Galwan valley in eastern Ladakh has seen disengagement, Chinese forces are maintaining positions from Finger 5 to Finger 8 areas of Pangong lake.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar in an interview recently said any solution "must be predicated on honouring all agreements and understandings and not attempting to alter the status quo unilaterally”.