Canberra (Australia): External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday said peace is awaited on the border even as Indian and Chinese troops have withdrawn from eastern Ladakh. He said the disengagement agreement would be implemented “to everyone’s satisfaction” in the coming days. Jaishankar was interacting with Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) executive director Justin Bassi at the first meeting of the ‘think tank’ here made the above remarks.
Jaishankar was asked about India-China relations in the coming days. India announced on October 21 that it had reached an agreement with China on patrolling the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh, ending the four-year military confrontation between the two armies. Jaishankar said in Canberra on Tuesday that “currently, tensions are waiting and are due to the mobilization of security forces along the Line of Actual Control.” The foreign minister said that by 2020, the two countries will deploy as many as expected along the Line of Actual Control. . Today’s military deployment is bigger than that, “so the only path before us is dialogue.”
Tensions between India and China have increased since June 2020
After the fierce conflict in the Galwan Valley in June 2020, relations between the two countries deteriorated significantly. Jaishankar said the top priority was to find a way to withdraw the troops. He said the focus was to return to as much normalcy as possible and resume patrols by 2020. He expressed hope that patrols would begin soon. He said the chapter on disengagement had been completed and its implementation would be “to everyone’s satisfaction in the coming days”.
The foreign minister said that during this period (after 2020), India-China relations were also “deeply affected” because India believes that peace and stability in the border areas are a prerequisite for the development of bilateral relations. He also drew attention to the agreement reached between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping in their first bilateral meeting in five years that the external affairs minister and national security adviser would meet with the foreign minister to explore ways to normalize relations. (language)
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