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India and China have agreed to disengage from military positions around the banks of a Himalayan lake, the first breakthrough between the two deadlocked Asian giants in nine months of standoff.
But while there are hopes that the news could be a springboard for further troop withdrawals, for now at least the situation is far from normal, with heavy deployments remaining on both sides of the de facto border high in the mountains.
The standoff between India and China is the worst in decades over their long disputed land border, and has boiled over into hand-to-hand violence on several occasions since it began last April. On 15 June, a clash between the two armies left 20 Indian soldiers dead and an undeclared number of Chinese casualties as they fought on treacherous slopes with clubs and other improvised weaponry.