China and India maintain communication through diplomatic, military channels: Beijing

Beijing, October 26 (IANS) The Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Monday that China and India have maintained communication through diplomatic and military channels while adding that Beijing "strictly abides" by the relevant agreements and common understandings reached between the two countries as far as maintaining peace and tranquillity in the border areas with concrete actions is concerned.Addressing a regular press conference in Beijing on Monday, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Guo Jiakun said that China abides by the relevant agreements and understandings reached with India and conducts border patrol and control activities to safeguard its territorial sovereignty and stability in the border regions.He was reacting to a question on the remarks made by Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson last week on the situation around Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Arunachal Pradesh."China strictly abides by the relevant agreements and common understandings reached between the two countries, and conducts normal border patrol and control activities to safeguard its territorial sovereignty and stability in the border areas," Guo said."China and India maintain communication through diplomatic and military channels. We hope that India will work with China in the same direction by jointly implementing the common understandings reached between the two sides and maintaining peace and tranquillity in the border areas with concrete actions," he added.The MEA last week said that India and China continue to use existing diplomatic and military mechanisms to resolve outstanding issues and "avoid misunderstanding and miscalculation along the LAC."As we have noted in the past, the situation in the India-China border areas gets disturbed from time to time when Chinese forces diverge from established patrolling patterns. Both sides continue to use existing diplomatic and military mechanisms to resolve outstanding issues and avoid misunderstanding and miscalculation along the Line of Actual Control," said MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal at a bi-weekly media briefing in New Delhi on October 23."The two sides have also agreed to discuss ways to improve understanding of LAC in appropriate areas for better border management. I would also like to emphasise that the maintenance of peace and tranquillity in the border areas is essential for the overall development of bilateral relations," he added.