India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has stated that the situation along the border in eastern Ladakh with China is “abnormal.” Speaking to reporters after talks with his Chinese counterpart Qin Gang, Jaishankar emphasized that India-China relations cannot be normal if peace and tranquillity in border areas are disturbed.
The standoff between the Indian and Chinese troops in certain friction points along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh entered its fourth year. Jaishankar and Qin held bilateral talks on Thursday on the sidelines of a meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in a beach resort.
Jaishankar stated that there is a need to take the disengagement process forward, and that the abnormal position in border areas along the boundary is the issue. He also suggested that China’s claim that the situation along the border is stable is not accurate.
The meeting between the two foreign ministers was their second in the last two months. The Chinese foreign minister visited India in March to attend a meeting of the G20 foreign ministers.
The ties between India and China have deteriorated significantly following the fierce clash in the Galwan Valley in June 2020, marking the most serious military conflict between the two sides in decades. India has been maintaining that the relationship between the two countries should be based on “three mutuals” – mutual respect, mutual sensitivity, and mutual interests.
As a result of a series of military and diplomatic talks, the two sides completed the disengagement process in 2021 on the north and south banks of the Pangong lake and in the Gogra area. However, there has been no clear forward movement in ending the three-year border row.
In conclusion, Jaishankar’s statement emphasizes the need for the disengagement process to move forward and for peace and tranquillity in border areas to be restored to normalize India-China relations.