India-China ties not normal: Jaishankar on talks with Wang Yi

New Delhi, Mar 25: External affairs minister S Jaishankar on Friday said that the bilateral ties between India and China were currently not normal, given the large number of troops deployed along the border, which was in contravention of the 1993-96 agreements. He made these remarks after holding talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in New Delhi that lasted for about three hours. Jaishankar said that he and his Chinese counterpart addressed a broad and substantive agenda in an open and candid manner.

 

 

"I would describe the current situation as work in progress, obviously at a slower pace than desirable. And my discussions with Foreign Minister Wang Yi today were aimed at expediting that process. The impact of the tension at the border areas on the overall relationship has been visible in the last two years. This is only natural since peace and tranquillity at the border areas have been the foundation of stable and cooperative ties. Indeed we have agreements designed to strengthen these foundations and prevent the kind of situation that we are seeing today," he said.

 

 

Jaishankar addressed a media briefing after holding extensive talks with Wang Yi that lasted for three hours. He was joined by senior officials, including foreign secretary Harsh Shringla and MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi during the press meet. It should be noted that this is the first major diplomatic engagement between India and China in nearly two years since both the countries are engaged in border conflict along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh.

 

 

"I was honest in conveying our sentiment on this issue during talks with Wang Yi,” he said, adding restoration of normal ties will require restoration of normalcy in border areas. "So long there are very large deployments, border situation is not normal. We still have ongoing friction areas, have made progress in resolving some friction areas including Pangong Tso. Our discussion today was how to take this forward. There have been 15 rounds of talks," he said.

 

 

 

 

When asked if any timeline has been set for disengagement and de-escalation along the LAC, Jaishankar said, “There was no timeline... A parallel but a separate discussion took place in regard to sorting out the situation in border areas.” When asked whether there were talks of QUAD between the leaders, he said there was no discussion on Quad meet with the Chinese FM.

 

 

Jaishankar said the occasion provided an opportunity to exchange views on major international issues, including Afghanistan and Ukraine. “So far as Afghanistan is concerned, India's policy is guided by the UN Security Council Resolution 2593. On Ukraine, we discussed our respective approaches and perspective but agreed that diplomacy and dialogue must be the priority.”

 

“I also took up strongly the predicament of Indian students studying in China who haven't been allowed to return citing COVID restrictions. We hope China will take a non-discriminatory approach since it involves future of many young people,” he said.

 

Earlier, national security officer Ajit Doval held talks with Wang and told him restoration of peace in border areas will help build trust, create enabling environment for progress in ties.