China welcomes troop disengagement along border with India amid reports of likely Modi-Xi meet

Beijing China has welcomed the disengagement of Chinese and Indian troops along their contested border. “It is conducive to peace and tranquillity in the border areas,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said at a Beijing press conference on Friday.“This is the outcome of multiple rounds of talks over a period of time between the two sides’ diplomatic and military establishments at various levels,” she said. Chinese and Indian troops in the area of Jianan Daban began to disengage on September 8.“The engagement of both sides is a positive signal and we hope to see the more sound development of China-India relations,” Mao added.Unconfirmed reports suggest that Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi could hold talks at the end of next week during a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Samarkand in Uzbekistan. Ties between China and India remain tense. Clashes along the border between soldiers using sticks and stones two years led to a number of deaths on both sides in the worst such incident for decades. There was a brief war along the border in 1962.

– Ranjith Perera –