Chinese Ambassador to India Sun Weidong on Tuesday said that the frontier troops of India and China have “disengaged” in the Galwan valley and Pangong lake area, two of the several friction points in eastern Ladakh where the armies of both the nations are on a standoff for over a year.

The statement has come on the day when the United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in India, and the official has held meetings with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval. In China, Blinken’s visit to India visit is seen as the United States’ attempt to counter the growth of Beijing.

“The rights and wrongs of what happened in the China India border area last year are very clear. China has made clear its position on many occasions. The two sides have maintained communication through diplomatic and military channels. The frontier troops of both countries have disengaged in the Galwan valley and the Pangong Lake area,” Weidong said, while delivering the keynote speech at an online event.

Besides others, the online evet titled ‘Putting People First, Promoting Common Development, themed ‘sharing, experience on party building promoting exchanges and cooperation’ was attended by Sitaram Yechury, General secretary of the communist party of India (M), D Raja, General Secretary of the community party of India, Dr S Senthikumar, Member of the Lok Sabha and G Devarajan, secretary of the central committee of the All India Forward Bloc.

While acknowledging the fact that India and China have differences over boundary, Weidong said that to “run our affair well, we need to properly manage our differences".

“It is an objective fact that we have differences on issues like boundary question. We take these differences very seriously. But differences are not and should not be the whole story of the China- India relations. Heightening differences does not help solve the problem and only erodes the basis mutual trust. It would make differences more difficult and complicated to solve,” he said.

Weidong said that both the countries should seek a fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable solution through dialogue and consultations.

“We should place the border issue in an appropriate position in bilateral relations and seek fair reasonable and mutually acceptable solution through dialogue and consultations. Pending final settlement, the two sides should jointly maintain peace and tranquillity in the border areas”, he said.

He said both the sides should consolidate the achieved results, find a solution acceptable to both the sides on the issue that needs emergency response through negotiation and consultation, gradually move towards regular management and control, in order to further ease the situation and avoid any recurrence of tension due to the misunderstanding and miscalculation.

He said that China-India relations are significant to peace and prosperity of the region and the world at large.

“We should view and treat our bilateral relations from a more comprehensive and long-term perspective. China’s strategic assessment of China-India relations has not changed. We always believe that China and India should unswervingly adhere to the consensus reached by our leaders, and we pose no threat but offer development opportunities to each other. The two countries are partners rather than rivals or enemies,” he said.

He said that “we need to help each other succeed instead of undercutting or even confronting each other". “We should correctly view each other’s strategic intentions, be committed to the principles of mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, mutual non-aggression, non-interference in each other’s internal affairs, and mutual respect for each other’s core interests. We should be committed to regard cooperation as the main theme, seek mutual benefits and complementarity, so as to bring more benefits to our two countries and peoples," he added.