S Jaishankar said that ties between Indochina were “very difficult” but had normalized since the late 1980s (Archive)
New Delhi:
Foreign Minister S Jaishankar said on Saturday that peace and quiet along the Royal Line of Control (LAC) are “deeply disturbed” and this is obviously affecting the overall relationship between India and China.
S Jaishankar made the remarks in the context of the more than five-month-long border clash between India and China in eastern Ladakh, where each side has deployed more than 50,000 troops.
The question of the boundaries between China and India is a very “complicated” and difficult subject, he said in a webinar about his book “The India Way”, which offers a historical perspective of the development of the relationship between the two neighboring countries in the last three decades.
The foreign minister said that the relationship between India and China, which was “very difficult”, was normalized since the late 1980s through a plethora of initiatives such as trade, travel, tourism and social activities with the premise of peace and quiet along the border.
“It is not our position that we should resolve the boundary issue. We understand that it is a very complicated and difficult issue. There have been many negotiations at different levels … That is a very high bar for a relationship,” S Jaishankar said.
“I mean a much more basic bar which is that there must be peace and quiet throughout LAC in the border areas and that has been the case since the late 1980s,” he added.
“Now if the peace and quiet is deeply disturbed then obviously there will be an impact on the relationship and that is what we are seeing,” he said referring to the border situation in eastern Ladakh.
S Jaishankar said that both China and India are rising and taking on a “bigger” role in the world, but the “big question” is how the two countries find a “balance”.
“That is the basic case that I addressed in my book,” the minister said, adding that he completed the manuscript of the book in April, before the border line erupted in eastern Ladakh.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
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