Doklam standoff: India's objective of peace and tranquillity will be accomplished through diplomacy, says MEA

New Delhi: A day after External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said that war is no solution to the Doklam standoff, MEA official spokesperson, Gopal Baglay on Friday said that India continues to engage with China through diplomatic channels to find a mutually acceptable solution to the row.

"Our objective is to achieve peace and tranquillity, and it will be achieved through diplomacy," the MEA spokesperson stated.

Commenting on China's claim that India has reduced the number of its troops from 400 to 40 by the end of July in the Doklam area of Sikkim section, Baglay didn't elaborate too much and said, "these are operational matters."

Amid the standoff at Doklam, Sushma Swaraj on Thursday told the Rajya Sabha said that war is not a solution and the government will keep engaging with China to resolve the dispute.

Replying to a discussion on "India's foreign policy and engagement with strategic partners", Swaraj expressed confidence that a mutually- acceptable solution would be found through talks to the Doklam border stand-off even as it described the Chinese action as a "matter of concern".

China and India have been engaged in the standoff in the Doklam area near the Bhutan tri-junction since June after a Chinese Army's construction party attempted to build a road. Doka La is the Indian name for the region which Bhutan recognises as Doklam, while China claims it as part of its Donglang region.

India has said Beijing's action to "unilaterally determine tri-junction points" violated a 2012 India-China pact which says the boundary would be decided by consulting all the concerned parties.

The two countries share a little over 200 km of border in the Sikkim sector.