India on Tuesday said the state of its border with China will reflect on the state of the "larger bilateral ties" and that maintenance of peace and tranquillity along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) is of "utmost importance".
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) also rejected China's criticism of New Delhi identifying 27 places and features in Arunachal Pradesh by their standard names, and asserted that the state is an "inalienable and integral" part of India and nothing can change this "indisputable reality."
"In matters relating to the border areas between India and China, we have always emphasised in discussions with the Chinese side that we consider these issues as most serious," MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said at a regular media briefing.
"The maintenance of peace and tranquillity in these areas is of the utmost importance. We have also stated that the state of the border affairs will reflect on the state of our larger bilateral ties," he said.
Jaiswal said this was reiterated at meeting of the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on India-China border affairs ( WMCC) held last week."At this meeting, the two sides engaged in frank discussions and reviewed the situation along the Line of Actual Control (LAC)," he said.
Jaiswal said the Indian side again underlined that maintaining peace and tranquillity in the border areas is essential for the overall development of bilateral relations.
"It was agreed to continue to use existing diplomatic and military channels, including the WMCC, local commander-level meetings and other agreed mechanisms, to resolve outstanding issues and avoid misunderstanding and miscalculation along the LAC," he said.India and China rolled out a series of measures in the last over one year to rebuild their relationship after it came under severe strain following the deadly Galwan Valley clashes in 2020 and the subsequent military face-off that lasted for over four years.
In October 2024, the two sides firmed up a disengagement pact for Depsang and Demchok, the last two friction points in eastern Ladakh.Days after the agreement was finalised, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping held talks in Kazan and took a number of decisions to improve the ties.
In August last year, Modi travelled to the Chinese city of Tianjin to attend the annual SCO summit. Modi and Xi held extensive talks on the sidelines of the SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organisation) summit.
In the meeting, Modi said India is committed to taking forward its ties with China based on mutual trust, respect and sensitivity.