India, China to 'consider each other's reasonable concerns' on border tensions

ANKARA

China and India have agreed to "consider each other's reasonable concerns" related to border issues and strive to reach a "mutually acceptable solution as soon as possible," Chinese state media reported Thursday.

The agreement was reached between the two sides at a meeting of the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on Border Affairs held Wednesday in New Delhi.

The world’s two most populated nations have been engaged in a tussle along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) -- the de facto border between India and China -- since May 2020.

At least 24 soldiers, including 20 from India, died in hand-to-hand fighting that year.

Beijing and New Delhi also agreed to "speed up negotiations" to maintain peace in border areas.

The meeting was held after Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his Indian counterpart, S. Jaishankar, met twice last month -- in Kazakhstan and in Laos -- on the sidelines of regional summits.

Wang and Jaishankar had acknowledged that stabilizing relations was in the “mutual interest” of the two countries.

Jaishankar said early this week that New Delhi was not looking at third countries to solve problems with Beijing.

"We are not looking to other countries to sort out what is really an issue between us, it's for the two of us to sort it out," he told reporters in Tokyo, where he attended a summit of the Quad top diplomats -- Australia, India, Japan and the US.

He was referring to a 3,500-kilometer (2,174-mile) LAC in the Ladakh area of disputed Jammu and Kashmir.

*Writing by Islamuddin Sajid​​​​​​​