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NEW DELHI: After the military dialogue on the border stand-off, China on Monday said the two countries will work to maintain peace and tranquillity along the border and “create a good atmosphere”. A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said the two sides had agreed that they needed to implement the consensus reached by PM Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping that differences didn’t escalate into disputes.
Beijing described the situation at the border as “stable and controllable”. The Chinese state media warned that while the situation in Ladakh was unlikely to turn into another Doklam, the stand-off was going to continue a little longer because of the “complexity” of the situation. It quoted an analyst as saying the issue wasn’t going to be resolved until the time India stopped building infrastructure “on Chinese territory”.
Global Times quoted analysts to say that since Doklam, all kinds of bilateral mechanisms, including on military, diplomatic and local issues, had been established and that this had eliminated the possibility of an incident escalating into a crisis. “That being said, the ongoing stand-off is not likely to end immediately, as concrete issues must still be resolved… the trigger of the event, India’s construction of infrastructure on Chinese territory, must be stopped, or China will not accept the situation,” it quoted an expert as saying.
The Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said diplomatic and military channels of the two sides had maintained close communications on the situation along the border. “One consensus is that the two sides need to implement the two leaders’ consensus and make sure that differences do not escalate into disputes,” she said.
The spokesperson added that the “two sides will work to maintain peace and tranquillity along the border and create a good atmosphere… So the situation overall is stable and controllable and the two sides are ready to engage in consultation to properly solve the relevant issues.” Her remarks came a day after MEA said India and China had agreed to continue military and diplomatic talks to “peacefully” resolve the stand-off in accordance with bilateral agreements.
