New Delhi: India remains committed to engaging with China to arrive at a fair and mutually acceptable framework for boundary settlement, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Tuesday, noting that India-China relations cannot be normal in the absence of a clearly articulated approach.
Making a statement in the Lok Sabha, the minister said India-China ties have been abnormal since 2020 when peace and tranquillity in border areas were disturbed due to Chinese actions.
“The amassing of troops by China in eastern Ladakh in April-May 2020 resulted in face-offs at several points. After the Galwan Valley clashes, we were addressing a situation that not only saw fatalities but events that needed heavy weaponry deployment,” he said.
“The conclusion of the disengagement phase now allows us to consider other aspects of our bilateral engagement in a calibrated manner,” he said, briefing the House on recent developments in the India-China border areas and their implications on overall bilateral relations.
“Our ties have been abnormal since 2020 when peace and tranquillity in the border areas were disturbed as a result of Chinese actions,” he said, adding that “recent developments that reflect our continuous diplomatic engagement since then have set our ties in the direction of some improvement”.
On October 21, India and China reached an agreement on disengagement at friction points along the LAC in eastern Ladakh, and weeks later, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping held a bilateral meeting in Russia’s Kazan – five years after their last bilateral meeting.
“The House is cognizant of the fact that China is in illegal occupation of 38,000 sq km of Indian territory in Aksai Chin as a result of the 1962 conflict and the events that preceded it,” Jaishankar said. Furthermore, Pakistan illegally ceded 5,180 sq km of Indian territory to China in 1963, which had been under its occupation since 1948, he said.
“India and China have held talks for multiple decades to resolve the boundary issue. While there is LAC, it does not have a common understanding in some areas,” he noted, adding that India remains “committed to engaging with China through bilateral discussions to arrive at a fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable framework for a boundary settlement”.
Referring to the violent clashes in Galwan Valley in June 2020, Jaishankar said that in the months thereafter, India was “addressing a situation that had not only seen fatalities for the first time in 45 years but also a turn of events serious enough for heavy weaponry to be deployed close to the LAC”.
“While a determined counter deployment of adequate capability was the government’s immediate response, there was also the imperative of a diplomatic effort to defuse these heightened tensions and restore peace and tranquillity,” Jaishankar added.
Stating that “disengagement from friction points has been fully achieved”, Jaishankar said, “The next priority will be to consider de-escalation, that would address the massing of troops along the LAC with associated accompaniments.”
He also said that the overall relationship with China was bound to be impacted adversely in the light of the 2020 clashes, and going forward, India has made clear that “the development of our ties were contingent on the principles of mutual sensitivity, mutual respect and mutual interests”.
“Throughout this period, the Government has maintained that India-China relations cannot be normal in the absence of peace and tranquillity in the border areas,” he said.
Informing the House about the agreement reached on October 21, 2024, regarding Depsang and Demchok, he said that the twin considerations of an unstable local situation and an impacted bilateral relationship were the drivers for these recent endeavours. “These two areas have been the focus of our discussions in both WMCC and SHMC with the Chinese side since September 2022, when the last disengagement agreement was concluded at the Hot Springs area,” he noted.
“The disengagement has now been achieved in full in Eastern Ladakh through a step-by-step process, culminating in Depsang and Demchok. With the task of disengagement completed, it is now our expectation that discussions would commence in regard to the remaining issues that we had placed on the agenda,” he said.
On the future course of the ties, he said, “We are clear that the maintenance of peace and tranquillity in border areas is a pre-requisite for the development of our ties. In the coming days, we will be discussing both de-escalation as well as effective management of our activities in the border areas.”
The conclusion of the disengagement phase now allows us to consider other aspects of our bilateral engagement in a calibrated manner, keeping our national security interests first and foremost, he said.
