India and China have agreed, during a phone call between their foreign ministers, to set up a hotline, though the two countries differed on the way forward to resume normalcy in ties. During the call, India’s foreign minister S. Jaishankar and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi assessed the situation following the disengagement of troops at a major friction point in Ladakh where the two armies were locked in an eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation for about ten months. The phone call took place on Thursday and lasted 75 minutes, according to a readout issued by India’s foreign ministry on Friday. Both the Indian and Chinese readouts of the talks referred to the setting up of the hotline, the aim of which was “timely communication and exchange of views", according to the Chinese foreign ministry. Jaishankar and Wang acknowledged the disengagement of troops from the north and south banks of Pangong Tso lake, seen as a major point of dispute in the current phase of tensions that began in May when China mobilized thousands of soldiers along the border with India in Ladakh and also transgressed into Indian territorySubscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter.

Source: Mint February 26, 2021 11:24 UTC