“India-China Ties Have Improved Of Late”: S Jaishankar In Parliament

New Delhi:

India-China ties – “abnormal” since April 2020, when the two militaries clashed in parts of eastern Ladakh, leading to fatalities on both sides for the first time in 45 years – have improved recently, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar told the Lok Sabha Tuesday, explaining that “continuous diplomatic engagement since then (has) set our ties in the direction of some improvement”.

India remains committed, Mr Jaishankar said, to engaging with China “through bilateral talks to arrive at a fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable settlement for the border issue”.

“Members will recall the amassing of a large number of troops by China along the LAC (Line of Actual Control) in eastern Ladakh in April-May 2020 resulted in face-offs with our forces at a number of points. The situation also led to disruption of patrolling activities,” the EAM began his remarks.

“It is to the credit of our armed forces that despite logistical challenges, and the then prevailing Covid situation, they were able to counter-deploy rapidly and effectively,” he said.

“While a determined counter-deployment of adequate capability was the immediate response, there was also the imperative of a diplomatic effort to defuse tensions and restore peace and tranquillity.”

That diplomatic effort, which included nearly two dozen rounds of talks between military commanders, the most recent on August 29, led to the October agreement, under which Indian and Chinese troops returned to positions, and resumed patrolling routes, prior to the April 2020 face-off.

The agreement – announced hours before Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Russia for a BRICS Summit at which China’s Xi Jinping would also be present – was seen as a roadmap to restoration of peace and tranquillity along the LAC, a status quo the Indian government has often spoken about as the first, and a necessary, step towards any normalisation of relations between the two countries.