India says it wants to move beyond border disengagement with China

ANKARA

India on Thursday said it would try to take the ties with longtime rival China “beyond disengagement” along the disputed border in Ladakh.

Defense Minister Rajnath Singh said New Delhi’s efforts would be to take the ties with China beyond disengagement along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) but "for that, we will have to wait a little longer," English daily The Deccan Herald reported.

Singh said this after virtually inaugurating the "Museum of Valour" at Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh, a district bordering China.

His remarks came days after Beijing and New Delhi reached an agreement on patrolling arrangements along the LAC.

Singh said the disengagement agreement could be signed due to the “discipline and valor” of the Indian forces along the border with China.

China’s Defense Ministry spokesperson Zhang Xiaogang said on Thursday that Beijing and New Delhi have reached resolutions on issues concerning the border areas through diplomatic and military channels.

“The frontline troops of the two militaries are making progress in implementing the resolutions in an orderly manner,” Zhang said in a post on X.

The world’s two most populated nations have been engaged in a tussle along the 3,500-kilometer (2,174-mile) long LAC - the de facto border between India and China in the Ladakh area of disputed Jammu and Kashmir - since May 2020.

At least 24 soldiers, including 20 from India, were killed in hand-to-hand combat that year, known as the “Galwan clashes.”