Totally ignoring US President Donald Trump's recent offer to mediate between India and China on the border row that has erupted, the Ministry of External Affairs on Thursday said, "We are engaged with the Chinese side to resolve the issue.''
Addressing his weekly briefing, the ministry spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said that India and China had several established mechanisms at both the military and diplomatic fronts to resolve border situations, when they arise, through dialogue. He said that the Indian military scrupulously follows the guidelines laid down by the leaders of both the countries on this issue. He, however, emphasised that India remains firm in its resolve to ensure the nation's sovereignty and national security.
"Indian troops take a very responsible approach towards border management and strictly follow the procedures laid out in various bilateral agreements and protocols with China to resolve any issue that may arise in the border areas,'' he said, adding that India was committed to the objective of maintenance of peace and tranquillity in the border areas with China.
China, too has said that the two countries are capable of resolving the issue through dialogue. Yesterday, Chinese ambassador to India Sun Weidong had said that India and China did not pose a threat to each other. A day earlier, the Chinese foreign ministry called the situation in Ladakh as being overall stable and controllable.
Since 1993, India and China have signed several bilateral agreements and protocols to ensure peace in the border areas, The first of these was the 1993 Agreement on Maintenance of Peace and Tranquility along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). In 1996, they inked the pact on Confidence Building Measures in the Military Field along the LAC. Then, there is the 2005 Protocol on Modalities for the Implementation of the Confidence Building Measures in the Military Field along the LAC. The 2012 agreement was on establishing a working mechanism for consultation on India—China Border Affairs and in 2013, they signed the Border Defence Cooperation Agreement.
In addition to all these, Narendra Modi and Xi Jinping had made the Astana Consensus in 2017, where they said that they would not let their differences become disputes. Shortly after the consensus, however, the standoff at Dolkam on the Bhutan-India-China trijunction took place, which led to a huge dip in ties. However, the two leaders later evolved the mechanism of informal summits. The first of these was in Wuhan in 2018, followed by the Chennai Connect last November.
