• Source:JND
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The United States has welcomed the reduction in tensions along the India-China border and clarified that it did not play any role in resolving the conflict between the two countries along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh.

"We are closely following the developments and understand that both countries have taken initial steps to withdraw troops from the friction points along the Line of Actual Control. We welcome any reduction in tensions along the border. We have talked to our Indian partners and taken a brief on it, but we did not play any role in this resolution,"  State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a briefing at Washington DC on Tuesday. 

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The US’s response comes after both countries reached an agreement on ‘patrolling arrangements’ along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), a significant move in ending the four-year-long military standoff. The agreement aims to ease tensions that had arisen in these areas in May 2020.

The agreement was signed following a bilateral meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and China’s President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the BRICS leaders’ summit in Kazan, Russia.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar confirmed that consensus has been reached on patrolling and disengagement in key areas such as Depsang and Demchok. He said that patrolling along the LAC would begin after disengagement, restoring the arrangement as it was in April 2020, before the border tensions between New Delhi and Beijing.

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However, Jaishankar emphasized that this breakthrough does not signify a complete resolution of the broader issues between the two nations. 

Speaking on the India-China standoff, PM Modi in an interview with Newsweek magazine said, “It is my belief that we need to urgently address the prolonged situation on our borders so that the abnormality in our bilateral interactions can be put behind us.”

The relations between India and China soured following deadly clashes between soldiers in June 2020, that left at least 20 Indians and an unknown number of Chinese dead.