NEW DELHI: External affairs minister S Jaishankar on Monday said there is no role for a third party in India’s border dispute with China.
Accepting the fact that India and China have some issue and the relationship is not normal, Jaishankar in Tokyo said, “We have problem, I would say an issue between India and China. But I think it is for the two of us to talk it over and to find a way.”
“Obviously other countries in the world would have an interest in the matter, because we are two big countries and the state of our relationship has an impact on the rest of the world.But we are not looking to other countries to sort out what is really an issue between us,” he added while reponding to a question on Quad members’s reaction on India-China issue.
The minister also said that he met his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi twice this month and had talked about the issue. Jaishankar and Wang met last week in the Laotian capital where they agreed on the need to give strong guidance to complete the disengagement process following the military standoff in eastern Ladakh in May 2020. And on July 4 also, they met in the Kazakh capital city of Astana on the sidelines of the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).
India and China’s relation has been strained since 2020 when their militaries got locked in a standoff and a full resolution of the border row has not yet been achieved though the two sides have disengaged from a number of friction points.
Talking about India relations with China, Jaishankar said, “We have views on China based on our experience. Our relations with China are not doing very well, the main reason for that is in 2020, during the COVID, China brought very large forces to the border areas between India and China in violation of agreements that we had with China and that created tensions which led to a clash, people died on both sides.”
” The consequences of that issue, which has not been fully resolved, continues. The relationship right now with China is not good, not normal. As a neighbour, we hope for a better relationship, but that can only happen if they respect the LOC and respect agreements which they have signed in the past…”he added.
Accepting the fact that India and China have some issue and the relationship is not normal, Jaishankar in Tokyo said, “We have problem, I would say an issue between India and China. But I think it is for the two of us to talk it over and to find a way.”
“Obviously other countries in the world would have an interest in the matter, because we are two big countries and the state of our relationship has an impact on the rest of the world.But we are not looking to other countries to sort out what is really an issue between us,” he added while reponding to a question on Quad members’s reaction on India-China issue.
The minister also said that he met his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi twice this month and had talked about the issue. Jaishankar and Wang met last week in the Laotian capital where they agreed on the need to give strong guidance to complete the disengagement process following the military standoff in eastern Ladakh in May 2020. And on July 4 also, they met in the Kazakh capital city of Astana on the sidelines of the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).
India and China’s relation has been strained since 2020 when their militaries got locked in a standoff and a full resolution of the border row has not yet been achieved though the two sides have disengaged from a number of friction points.
Talking about India relations with China, Jaishankar said, “We have views on China based on our experience. Our relations with China are not doing very well, the main reason for that is in 2020, during the COVID, China brought very large forces to the border areas between India and China in violation of agreements that we had with China and that created tensions which led to a clash, people died on both sides.”
” The consequences of that issue, which has not been fully resolved, continues. The relationship right now with China is not good, not normal. As a neighbour, we hope for a better relationship, but that can only happen if they respect the LOC and respect agreements which they have signed in the past…”he added.