External Affairs Minister Jaishankar speaks with Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, reviews status of disengagement at Ladakh

External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar spoke to his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on Thursday. This is the first time the leaders spoke to each other since the Moscow pact. They discussed the implementation of their Moscow Agreement on the border standoff and also reviewed the status of disengagement in Eastern Ladakh. This development comes after the disengagement process from both the north and south banks of Pangong Lake was completed by the two nations and further disengagement is underway at other friction points.

"Spoke to State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi this afternoon. Discussed the implementation of our Moscow Agreement and reviewed the status of disengagement," EAM Jaishankar tweeted.

The two leaders also discussed the five points consensus reached in September last year, which includes directions to border troops to continue dialogue, quickly disengage and maintain distance, as well as the need for new confidence-building measures.

Reiterating the country's position on the border issues, the Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Anurag Srivastava on Thursday said that India hasn't conceded any territory and prevented unilateral change in the status quo.

"India hasn't conceded any territory and prevented unilateral change in the status quo. The mutual redeployment should not be misinterpreted and there is absolutely no change with respect to our position on the Line of Actual Control," said Srivastava during a weekly press briefing.

Both the armies of India and China have agreed for disengagement in few areas and military troops have also been removed to maintain a status of pre-face-off that happened last year. India and China have had a stand-off along the LAC since April-May last year due to actions of the Chinese Army and have held several rounds of military and diplomatic talks.