"Until We Can Restore Peace On Border...": S Jaishankar On India-China Ties

The 2020 clash between Indian and Chinese troops in Galwan Valley overshadowed the relations between the two countries and New Delhi's focus for the last four years has been disengagement on the border, External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar has said.

Addressing an event titled 'India, Asia and the World' in New York yesterday, Dr Jaishankar said the India-China relationship is key to the future of Asia and would influence the entire world.

"I think the India-China relationship is key to the future of Asia. In a way, you can say that if the world is to be multi-polar, Asia has to be multi-polar. And therefore this relationship will influence not just the future of Asia, but in that way, perhaps the future of the world as well," Dr Jaishankar said, according to news agency PTI. The event was hosted by Asia Society and Asia Society Policy Institute.

Closing the day with an engaging conversation with @dannyrrussel @AsiaPolicy today on the theme ‘India, Asia & the World'.

As rebalancing, multipolarity and plurilateralism become key words of Asian and global geopolitics and a changing world tries to adjust to the shocks of… pic.twitter.com/FcodPdlpA9 — Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) September 25, 2024

The External Affairs Minister said India had a "difficult history" with China. "You have two countries who are neighbours, unique in the sense that they are the only two countries with over a billion people, both rising in the global order and who often have overlapping peripheries, including the fact that they have a common border. So it's really a very complicated issue. I think, if you look today in global politics, the parallel rises of India and China present a very, very unique problem," he said.

He referred to a recent remark that 75 per cent of the disengagement problems with China have been sorted out. "When I said 75 per cent of it has been sorted out - I was asked in a way to quantify - it's only of the disengagement. So that's one part of the problem. The main issue right now is the patrolling. You know, how do we, both of us, patrol up to the Line of Actual Control."

Dr Jaishankar said patrolling arrangements have been disturbed after 2020. "So we've been able to sort out much of the disengagement, the friction points, but some of the patrolling issues need to be resolved." He said that once the disengagement issue is dealt with, "there is the larger issue as both of us have brought a very large number of troops up to the border". "So there is what we call the de-escalation issue, and then there is the larger, the next step is really, how do you deal with the rest of the relationship?"

The minister said the "entire 3500 kilometre-border between India and China is disputed". "And so you make sure the border is peaceful so that other parts of the relationship can move."

Dr Jaishankar said several agreements between the two countries detailed how to ensure the border remained peaceful.

"Now the problem was in 2020, despite these very explicit agreements, we saw that the Chinese - we were all in the middle of Covid at that time - moved a large number of forces in violation of these agreements to the Line of Actual Control. And we responded in kind," he said. "Once troops were deployed very close up, which is 'very dangerous', it was likely a mishap could happen, and it did happen."

Referring to the 2020 Galwan clash, he said, "So there was a clash, and a number of troops died on either side, and that has since, in a sense, overshadowed the relationship. So until we can restore peace and tranquillity on the border and ensure the agreements signed up to are adhered to, it's obviously difficult to carry on with the rest of the relationship."

The External Affairs Minister said the focus for the last four years had been to at least disengage the troops, meaning that they go back to the camp, the military bases from which they traditionally operate. "Because right now, both sides have troops deployed forward," he said.