India said that the disengagement process of troops in the India-China border areas along the Line of Actual Control in the Western sector has not yet been completed despite China maintaining that disengagement had happened in most localities.

“There has been some progress made towards this objective (of disengagement and de-escalation) but the disengagement process has as yet not been completed. The Senior Commanders of the two sides will be meeting in the near future to work out steps in this regard,” said Anurag Srivastava, MEA Spokesperson, in a press briefing on Thursday.

Srivastava said that in the recent meeting of the Working Mechanism Consultation & Coordination, the two sides agreed that early and complete disengagement of the troops along the LAC and de-escalation from India-China border areas in accordance with bilateral agreement and protocols and full restoration of peace and tranquility were essential for smooth overall development of bilateral relations.

This was also the agreement reached between the two Special Representatives, NSA and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, in their conversation on July 5.

“... we expect that the Chinese side will sincerely work with us for complete disengagement and de-escalation and full restoration of peace and tranquility in the border areas at the earliest as agreed to by the Special Representatives,” he said.

India and China are engaged in discussions to normalise relations after troops from both sides were killed in a violent face-off at the border area in Galwan valley on the night of June 15.

Vande Bharat Mission

On the status of the Vande Bharat Mission, launched by the government to bring back stranded Indians all over the world, Srivastava said that a total of 8,78,921 Indian nationals had returned to the country as on July 29 2020.

The fifth phase of the Vande Bharat Mission will start from August 1 and 792 flights (692 international and 100 domestic feeders) have been scheduled to repatriate Indians from 23 countries.

These include GCC countries, the US, Canada, UK, Germany, France, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, China, Israel, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan. The flights would cater to 21 different airports across India and repatriate an estimated 1,30,000 Indians stranded abroad, he added.

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