India-China standoff: India never accepted the so-called unilaterally defined 1959 LAC, says MEA
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MEA added that the "two sides had engaged in an exercise to clarify and confirm the LAC up to 2003 but this process could not proceed further as the Chinese side did not show a willingness to pursue it."
Amid the India-China standoff along the LAC, the ministry of external affairs(MEA) said today that "India never accepted the so-called unilaterally defined 1959 Line of Actual Contro(LAC). The position has been consistent and well known including to the Chinese."
The MEA said India calls on the Chinese side to "sincerely and faithfully" abide by all "agreements and understandings in their entirety and refrain from advancing an untenable unilateral interpretation of the LAC."
India and Chinese core commanders have been involved in long drawn out talks along the LAC ever since the Galwan Valley clash in June. On August 29-30, the Indian and Chinese troops were involved in another skirmish as the Indian side sought to push back the Chinese incursion amid the standoff at the border.
"Under their various bilateral agreements including the 1993 Agreement on Maintenance of Peace and Tranquility on Confidence Building Measures(CBMs) in the military field, 2005 Agreement on Political Parameters and Guiding Principles for settlement of the India-China boundary question, both India and China have committed to clarification and confirmation of the LAC to reach a common understanding of the alignment of the LAC."
MEA further added that the "two sides had engaged in an exercise to clarify and confirm the LAC up to 2003 but this process could not proceed further as the Chinese side did not show a willingness to pursue it."
"Therefore the insistence now on of the Chinese side that they is only one LAC is contrary to the solemn commitments made by China in these agreements," the MEA asserted.