Jaishankar’s comments during an interactive online session hosted by the Australian think tank Lowy Institute came in the context of the more than seven-month-long military confrontation between India and China on the Royal Line of Control (LAC) in the east. Ladakh.
“Today we are probably in the most difficult phase of our relationship with China, certainly in the last 30 or 40 years or one could argue even more,” Jaishankar said, highlighting various aspects of bilateral relations in the past three decades.
“The relationship this year has been badly damaged.”
“We are very clear that maintaining peace and tranquility in LAC is the basis for the rest of the relationship to advance. You cannot have the kind of situation you have on the border and say that we continue with life in everyone else. sectors. of activity. It’s unrealistic, “he said.
Jaishankar further said: “We have this problem because since 1988, our relationship had its setbacks, we had our problems and differences, but the direction of ties was generally positive.”
The foreign minister said the relationship advanced in trade, travel and several other domains, as both parties signed various pacts to maintain peace and tranquility in LAC.
“All of this was postulated on the fact that while we were trying to resolve the boundary issue, we would maintain peace and quiet in the border areas,” he said, adding that there were incidents of discussions between patrols along the border “but never he had a significant lack of understanding. ”
He said that starting in 1993, multiple agreements were signed between the two parties with the commitment that both parties will not bring large forces to the border areas.
“Now for some reason, for which the Chinese have given us five different explanations to date, the Chinese have violated it. The Chinese have literally brought tens of thousands of soldiers in full military readiness mode directly to LAC in Ladakh Naturally, the relationship “would be deeply disturbed by this,” he said.
Referring to the clashes in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh in which 20 Indian soldiers and an unknown number of Chinese soldiers were killed, Jaishankar said the incident “completely changed national sentiment.”
The foreign minister also said that the “big problem” is how to get the relationship back on track.
He also mentioned various diplomatic and military engagements between the two sides in recent months, including his meeting with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Moscow, as well as talks between the two defense ministers.
“We have multiple layers of communication. Communication is not the problem, the problem is the fact that we have agreements and those agreements are not being fulfilled.”
When asked about his time in China as India’s ambassador and his views on Chinese President Xi Jinping, Jaishankar referred to the observation he made in his book “The India Way: Strategies for an Uncertain World.”
“I think there has been an evolution in China, my book basically argues that 2008-09 was the turning point for that change. And today we have a China whose commitment to the world is very different from what it used to be. Made 20 years ago. “, said.
“Now it could be argued that it is natural that (when) a country ascends in the hierarchy of power that its behavior pattern changes, I reserve to comment on it, but clearly there is no doubt that there is a much more nationalistic China and that is expressed somewhat later in a variety of ways and often in politics as well, “Jaishankar said.
When asked what India’s ties to the United States will be like under Joe Biden’s administration, Jaishankar said that the president-elect of the United States has goodwill towards India and made positive contributions to the growth of ties between the two countries. He said that the structural and objective part of the relations united the countries.
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