NEW DELHI: India has asked China to constructively work towards a “permanent solution” to the border issue under a structured roadmap to bridge trust deficit, de-escalate tensions and rejuvenate the existing mechanism to demarcate it, even as their armies continue to be forward deployed against each other along the frontier for the last five years.Defence minister Rajnath Singh also told his Chinese counterpart, Admiral Dong Jun, on the sidelines of the SCO conclave Thursday that Beijing should understand and respect India’s “principled approach” to defend itself against cross-border terror sponsored by Pakistan, officials told TOI.Rajnath: India, China should not remain stuck in the past Briefing Admiral Dong about the “heinous” Pahalgam massacre and the subsequent Operation Sindoor launched by India against terrorist networks in Pakistan, Singh said both New Delhi and Beijing should “avoid adding new complexities” to their bilateral relationship. This came in the backdrop of Pakistan using a wide array of Chinese weapons, including J-10 fighters firing the PL-15 beyond visual range air-to-air missiles, against India during the cross-border hostilities from May 7 to 10. Under their deep military collusiveness, China is now also going to supply Pakistan with at least 40 J-35A fifth-generation stealth jets and HQ-19 long-range air defence missile systems. The hour-long meeting, however, mainly focussed on the need to maintain peace and tranquillity along the 3,488-km Line of Actual Control (LAC), with Singh stressing the need for “solving the complex issues through a structured roadmap of permanent engagement and de-escalation”. India’s repeated use of ‘permanent’ represents a new push for resolving the decades-old festering border dispute. Acknowledging efforts by both sides to bring back a “semblance of normalcy” in bilateral ties, Singh also put forward a four-point plan to put the overall relationship on an upward trajectory, officials told TOI. This involves both sides first strictly adhering to the plan that led to troop disengagement at the two remaining face-off sites at Depsang and Demchok in eastern Ladakh last Oct, which has reduced the risk of any inadvertent escalation. They should now move forward to the next steps of de-escalation and de-induction of troops from their forward deployments along the LAC. The two countries should also accelerate efforts to achieve the goal of demarcation and delimitation of the border and register concrete progress in the existing special representatives (SR) level mechanism to achieve a fair and mutually-acceptable solution to the boundary question and other issues. The forward momentum in bilateral ties has gained ground since national security advisor Ajit Doval and Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi discussed various issues under the SR mechanism in Beijing last Dec for the first time since 2019. “Singh said India and China should not remain stuck in the past. He called for bridging the trust deficit created after the border standoff in 2020 by taking action on the ground,” an official said. “The two ministers agreed to continue consultations at various levels to achieve progress on issues related to disengagement, de-escalation, border management and eventual de-limitation through existing mechanisms,” he added.