When I said 75% issues sorted, I meant…: S Jaishankar on China border row

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday (local time) said when he meant that 75 per cent progress on the India-China border dispute talks was done, it was only on the disengagement of troops in eastern Ladakh.
Jaishankar said India has had a “difficult history” with China and that Beijing moved several troops to the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in 2020, despite New Delhi having “explicit agreements” with it.
“We have a difficult history with China. Despite the explicit agreements we had with China, we saw in the middle of Covid that the Chinese moved a large number of forces in violation of these agreements to the LAC. It was likely a mishap would happen and it did. So, there was a clash and a number of troops died on either side. That, in a sense, overshadowed the relationship,” he said at the Asia Society at the Asia Society Policy Institute in New York.
When I said 75 per cent of it (border dispute) has been sorted out, it’s only of the disengagement. So, that’s one part of the problem. So we’ve been able to sort out much of the disengagement in the friction points. But some of the patrolling issues need to be resolved. The next step will be de-escalation,” he said.
Jaishankar’s remarks on disengagement of troops came after he had said earlier this month that India made progress in its border negotiations with China and about 75 per cent of disengagement problems were sorted out.
Relations between India and China are at an all-time low after the militaries of both countries were engaged in a bloody standoff at Galwan Valley in Ladakh in May 2020. The disengagement process began in February 2021 and talks have been held since then to resolve the border dispute.
At the event, Jaishankar stressed that the ties between India and China is the key to the future of making Asia and the world multipolar.
“I think the India-China relationship is key to the future of Asia. If the world is to be multipolar, Asia has to be multipolar and therefore this relationship will influence not just the future of Asia, but in that way, perhaps the future of the world as well,” he said.
“We have long pursued the ‘Act East Policy’ with ASEAN at its centre. In the last decade, we have seen it mature into something beyond ASEAN. The arrival of the Indo-Pacific as a strategic subject is the success of the Act East Policy,” he added.
On September 13, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the sidelines of the BRICS meeting in Russia’s St Petersburg. Both sides agreed to expedite “complete disengagement” on the remaining friction points along the LAC, where Chinese and Indian troops have been engaged in a protracted stand-off since May 2020.
Last month, India and China held the 31st round of border affairs meeting where both sides had a “frank, constructive and forward-looking exchange” of views on the situation along the LAC, according to a statement by the Ministry of External Affairs.
The two countries decided to jointly uphold peace and tranquillity on the ground in the border areas in accordance with relevant bilateral agreements, protocols and understandings reached between the two governments.
“It was reiterated that restoration of peace and tranquility, and respect for LAC are the essential basis for restoration of normalcy in bilateral relations,” the statement said.