China, India foreign ministers agree to ease border tensions at in-person Russia meet

Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi and his Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar met for the first time in months at a summit held in Russia

They agreed in a joint statement that both sides ‘should abide by the existing border affairs agreements’, maintain peace and avoid escalatory actions

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India's Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, left, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi, pose for a photo in Moscow on Thursday. Photo: AP

Published: 8:39am, 11 Sep 2020Updated: 8:39am, 11 Sep 2020

India and China pledged to de-escalate tensions along their disputed Himalayan border after their foreign ministers met on Thursday for the first time since the stand-off turned deadly.

Foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi agreed that “the current situation in the border area is not in the interests of both sides,” they said in a joint statement after meeting on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Moscow organised by Russia.

The nations “should abide by the existing border affairs agreements and regulations, maintain peace and tranquillity in the border areas, and avoid any actions that may escalate the situation,” they said.

India and China have been increasing their troop strength along the 3,488-kilometer (2,167-mile) border known as the Line of Actual Control since May. The military stand-off, in which gun shots were fired this week for the first time since 1975, remains unresolved despite multiple rounds of negotiations between military commanders and diplomats and two phone calls between Wang and Jaishankar.

Indian army vehicles move along a highway leading to Ladakh, near the border with China. Photo: EPA

The latest skirmishes came just days after Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and his Chinese counterpart, General Wei Fenghe, agreed to ease tensions after “frank and in-depth discussions” in Moscow.

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