Doklam standoff: Peace returns as India, China withdraw troops

The Ministry for External Affairs has said that the Chinese have started pulling out of Doklam. Both India and China have stared to disengage from Doklam, a statement by the MEA read.

In recent weeks, India and China have maintained diplomatic communication in respect with the incident at Doklam. During these communications we were able to express our views and convey our concerns and interests.

On this basis, expeditious disengagement of border personnel at the face-off site at Doklam has been agreed upon. The process is ongoing, the MEA also said.

The disengagement of troops comes at a crucial time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to visit China for the BRICS summit. The stage for the back channel talks was however set during the visit by National Security Advisor, Ajit Doval. He was in China recently for the NSA BRICS summit. Although no official statement was made during that summit, there were back channel talks that had been opened up to de-escalate tensions at Doklam.

Although both sides have agreed to disengage troops, it is still unclear what the compromise solution. Whether China would stop construction at the tri-junction or not is still unclear. A highly placed source said that the first process has just begun and there are still some rounds of talks remaining before the entire issue is cleared up.

OneIndia News