India and China reviewed the current situation in areas along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), the Ministry of External Affairs said on Wednesday, adding that both the countries “positively” evaluated the outcome of the sixth round of military talks.
Both sides noted that the pact reached between the foreign ministers of the two countries should be sincerely implemented, the MEA said in a statement.
The two countries held a fresh round of diplomatic talks on Wednesday with a focus on implementing the five-point agreement reached between them to resolve the nearly five-month-long border standoff in eastern Ladakh.
The virtual talks were held under the framework of the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination (WMCC) on border affairs.
"They emphasised the need to implement the steps outlined in the joint press release issued after the last meeting of the senior commanders so as to avoid misunderstandings and to maintain stability on the ground. In this context, the need to strengthen communication, especially between the ground commanders, was emphasized by both sides," the MEA statement said.
The two countries agreed to conduct the next round of senior commanders' meeting at an early date and emphasised the need to strengthen communication between the ground commanders.
Corps commanders of the two sides held a nearly 14-hour-long meeting on September 21 following which they announced a slew of decisions to de-escalate the tense situation.
The decisions included to stop sending more troops to the frontline, refrain from unilaterally changing the situation on the ground and avoid taking any actions that may further complicate matters.
Wednesday's talks took place amid a war of words between the two sides on perception of the LAC, the de-facto Sino-India border spanning a length of nearly 3,500 km.
A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson recently insisted that China abides by the LAC as proposed by then Premier Zhou Enlai to Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in a letter dated November 7, 1959.
In a sharp reaction, India on Tuesday categorically rejected China's "so-called unilaterally defined" LAC of 1959, and asked the neighbouring country to refrain from advancing an "untenable" interpretation of the de-facto border.
The Indian government also reminded China that its insistence there is only "one LAC" is contrary to the solemn commitments made by Beijing in previous bilateral agreements, and expected it will "sincerely" abide by them in their entirety.
—Inputs from PTI
