NEW DELHI: Against the backdrop of the nearly three-year military standoff on the Line of Actual Control (LAC), external affairs minister S Jaishankar told his Chinese counterpart Qin Gang on Thursday that ties between the two countries are “abnormal” and the two sides have to address “real problems”.
This was Jaishankar’s first meeting with Qin, a close aide of President Xi Jinping since his appointment as foreign minister last year. The two leaders met on the margins of the G20 foreign ministers meeting, and Jaishankar made it clear that the fallout of the border tensions on bilateral relations dominated their talks.
“We spent maybe about 45 minutes talking to each other and the bulk of our conversation, understandably, was about the current state of our relationship, which many of you have heard me describe as abnormal,” Jaishankar told a media briefing.
“And [that was] among the adjectives that I used in that meeting. There are real problems in that relationship that need to be looked at, that need to be discussed very openly and candidly between us. That’s what we sought to do today,” he said.
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Jaishankar said he and Qin briefly discussed developments within the G20 framework. “But the thrust of the meeting was really on our bilateral relationship and the challenges in the bilateral relationship, especially that of peace and tranquillity in the border areas,” he said.
There was no immediate readout from the Chinese side on the meeting.
People familiar with the matter said the bilateral meeting afforded an opportunity for Jaishankar to convey the Indian side’s thinking to Qin, who is on his first visit to India.
India-China relations are currently at their lowest point in six decades following the brutal clash at Galwan Valley in June 2020 that resulted in the death of 20 Indian soldiers and at least four Chinese troops.
Jaishankar has repeatedly said in recent months that only the disengagement of frontline troops on the LAC and the restoration of peace and tranquillity in border areas can lead to the normalisation of bilateral relations.
The Chinese side, on the other hand, has called for the border tensions to be put in an “appropriate place” while relations are taken forward in other areas such as trade.
India and China withdrew troops from the two banks of Pangong Lake, Gogra and Hot Springs after more than two dozen rounds of diplomatic and military talks. However, they have been unable to make progress in other crucial friction points such as Depsang and Demchok amid growing indications that the Chinese side has ramped up the creation of military infrastructure, roads and bridges on its side of the LAC in the Ladakh sector.
