There are chances of India-China relations getting back on track after the violent clash in Ladakh. Every effort is being made by India. On the border issue in eastern Ladakh, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Thursday that the problems related to the withdrawal of troops have been resolved to about 75 percent, but the bigger issue is the increasing militarization on the border. He said this in a dialogue session with the think tank ‘Geneva Center for Security Policy’ in Switzerland.
Jaishankar said that the violent clashes in the Galwan Valley in June 2020 affected India-China relations in a holistic manner. He said that no one can say that after the violence on the border, the rest of the relations are untouched by it. The Foreign Minister said that talks are going on between the two sides to find a solution to the problem.
He said, “Talks are going on. We have made some progress. You can roughly say that about 75 percent of the problems related to the withdrawal of troops have been resolved. We still have to do some things.” He said that but the bigger issue is that both of us have brought our armies closer to each other and in this sense the border is being militarized.
The Foreign Minister said, “How to deal with this? I think we have to deal with it. After the clash, it has affected the entire relationship because after the violence on the border you cannot say that the rest of the relationship is untouched by it.”
He said, “We hope that if some solution is found to the issue of withdrawal of troops and peace is restored, then we can consider other possibilities.”
Indian and Chinese troops remain locked in a standoff at some friction points in eastern Ladakh even as the two sides have completed disengagement of troops from several areas following extensive diplomatic and military talks. India has consistently maintained that its relations with China cannot be normalised until there is peace in the border areas.
Terming India-China relations as “complex”, Jaishankar said that in the late 1980s, relations between the two countries were normal and the basis for this was that there was peace on the border. He said, “Obviously the basis of good relations, even normal relations, is that there should be peace and harmony on the border. In 1988, when the situation started improving, we made many agreements, which brought stability on the border. “
The Foreign Minister said, “What happened in 2020 was a violation of many agreements for some reasons that are still not completely clear to us; we can speculate on this.” He said, “China actually deployed a very large number of troops on the Line of Actual Control on the border and naturally in response we also sent our troops. This was very difficult for us because we were in the phase of Kovid lockdown at that time. ” Jaishankar described the developments as very dangerous.
Referring to the Galwan Valley clashes, he said, “We could see straight away that this was a very dangerous development as the presence of a large number of troops in high altitude and in extreme cold could lead to accidents. And this is exactly what happened in June 2022.”
The foreign minister said the issue for India was why China disturbed the peace and sent those troops and how to deal with the situation. He said, “We have been talking for about four years and the first step of this is what we called disengagement of troops, under which their troops go back to their normal operating bases and our troops return to their normal operating centers and we have a patrolling arrangement where necessary because both of us patrol that border regularly. As I said this is not a legally delineated border. “
Jaishankar arrived here on the last leg of his three-day visit. He also visited Saudi Arabia and Germany.