Trying to restore trust with China, says Army Chief

A day after India announced reaching an agreement with China on patrolling along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh, Army Chief Gen Upendra Dwivedi on Tuesday said as of now, "we are trying to restore the trust" and both sides would have to "reassure each other" to achieve this.

He was speaking at an interaction session here after delivering a lecture hosted by defence think-tank USI.

India on Monday announced it had reached an agreement with China on patrolling along the LAC in eastern Ladakh. This is seen as a major breakthrough in ending the over four-year-long military standoff ahead of a likely meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Russia this week.

"As far as we are concerned, we were looking at... we want to go back to the status quo of April 2020. Thereafter, we will be looking at disengagement, de-escalation and normal management of LAC. And, this normal management of the LAC will not just start there. There are phases in that also," the Army Chief said.

"So, this is what I am saying. This has been our stance since April 2020...and even today remains the same. So, as of now, we are trying to restore the trust. It will get restored once we are able to see each other, and we are able to convince each other regarding buffer zones that have been created," he said.

"And, both will have to reassure each other," he said.

Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri on Monday said the agreement was finalised following negotiations by the two sides over the last several weeks and that it would lead to a resolution of the issues that had arisen in 2020.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Monday said Indian and Chinese soldiers would be able to resume patrolling in the way they had been doing before the border faceoff began and the disengagement process with China had been completed.