India and China have agreed to an “expeditious disengagement” of troops in a disputed border area where their soldiers have been locked in a stand-off for more than two months, India’s foreign ministry said on Monday.
The decision comes ahead of a summit of the BRICS nations - a grouping that also includes Brazil, Russia and South Africa - in China next month, which Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to attend.
Indian and Chinese troops have been confronting each other at the Doklam plateau near the borders of India, its ally Bhutan and China, in the most serious and prolonged standoff in decades along their disputed Himalayan border.
In the meantime, China's Xinhua News Agency filed the following report:
China said Monday it had made on-site checks of India's withdrawal of personnel and equipment from Dong Lang (Doklam) after a months-long military stand-off.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said that Chinese personnel made the on-spot check around 2:30 p.m. (Beijing Time), adding that China will continue to safeguard its territorial sovereignty according to historical boundary treaties.
On June 18, over 270 armed Indian troops with two bulldozers crossed the boundary into Doklam, China's sovereign territory, to obstruct Chinese infrastructure construction.
