Proper verification must be done to ensure that the disengagement happens as per agreed conditions, said Narasimhan, adding: “Both sides were keen to end the standoff.” While a peaceful resolution to the crisis is in the pipeline, PLA will bargain hard, Narasimhan told ET. But the “Indian side will not compromise on its rights”

New Delhi: The disengagement process undertaken by the Chinese army along LAC in Ladakh must be verified before drawing any conclusion on the resolution of the border crisis, said Lt Gen SL Narasimhan (Retd), who heads the foreign ministry’s Centre for Contemporary Chinese Studies and is a member of India’s National Security Advisory Board.

Proper verification must be done to ensure that the disengagement happens as per agreed conditions, said Narasimhan, adding: “Both sides were keen to end the standoff.”

While a peaceful resolution to the crisis is in the pipeline, PLA will bargain hard, Narasimhan told ET. But the “Indian side will not compromise on its rights”.

India-China bilateral relations will take 'some efforts and time' to get back to status quo ante following this incident. There could be implications on the various aspects of the relationship,” he said.

Gen Narasimhan, who had worked as a Defence Adviser in the Indian Embassy in Beijing, said the process of disengagement had been agreed in the early June meeting between the two sides but the June 15 attack on Indian soldiers at the Galwan valley halted the process. He suggested that the entire episode must be handled through bilateral mechanisms.

The India-China disengagement process unlocked the space for high-level political and diplomatic engagements, starting with an extensive special representative interaction on Sunday. The national security adviser and India’s special representative for boundary talks with China Ajit Doval and Chinese representative and foreign minister Wang Yi were engaged for two hours on Sunday evening to take stock of the situation on the ground and discussed further steps as part of disengagement and de-escalation processes along the LAC in Ladakh.