New York. External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said that India-China relations will have an impact on the whole world and also clarified that first of all there is a need to restore peace on the border to take bilateral relations forward. Jaishankar said at a program organized by the Asia Society and Asia Society Policy Institute here on Tuesday that India has had a “difficult history” with China and the “parallel development of the two countries presents a very, very unique problem”.
He said in a program on ‘India, Asia and the World’, “I think India-China relations are important for the future of Asia. In a way you can say that if the world has to be multi-polar, then Asia will have to be multi-polar. And so this relationship will not only affect the future of Asia, but possibly the future of the world as well.”
He said, “You have two countries that are neighbours, they are unique in the sense that they are also countries with a population of over a billion, both are emerging in the global system and their boundaries are often unclear and at the same time they also have a common border. So this is a very complex issue. I think if you look at global politics today, the parallel development of India and China is a very, very unique problem.” Jaishankar said, “I think if you look at global politics today, the parallel development of India and China presents a very, very unique problem.” Jaishankar recently said that about 75 percent of the problems related to the withdrawal of troops with China have been resolved. His remarks were mentioned during a talk at the Asia Society.
The Foreign Minister said, “When I say that 75 percent of the problems have been resolved, it is only with regard to the withdrawal of troops. So this is a part of the problem. Right now the main issue is patrolling. You know how both of us patrol the Line of Actual Control.” Jaishankar said that the patrolling system has been disrupted after 2020 and it needs to be resolved. He said, “So we have been able to resolve the issue of withdrawal of troops to a large extent but some issues regarding patrolling need to be resolved.”
He said, “This is a big issue because we both brought a very large number of troops to the border. So we call it the withdrawal of troops and then a big, next step is actually how do you deal with the rest of the relationship?” He said in the historical perspective of the relations and border dispute between the two countries, “There is a border dispute between India and China along the entire 3,500 kilometers. So it is important to ensure that the border is peaceful so that other things in the relationship can move forward.” He said that many agreements have been made between the two countries to ensure that the border remains peaceful and stable.
Jaishankar said, “Now the problem arose in 2020, we were all in the era of Covid at that time but in violation of these agreements, the Chinese deployed a large number of troops on the Line of Actual Control and we responded in the same way.” Jaishankar said, “Once the troops are deployed very close, which is “very dangerous”, then there is a possibility that an accident may happen and that is what happened.” He said in reference to the clashes in the Galwan Valley in 2020, “So there was a clash and many soldiers on both sides lost their lives and since then there is a kind of sourness in the relationship. So until we restore peace on the border and ensure that the signed agreements are followed, it is clearly difficult to move the rest of the relationship forward.”
Jaishankar said that in the last four years, our focus is first to remove the troops from the border so that they go back to the military bases from where they traditionally work. He said, “Because right now both sides have deployed troops at the forward posts.” Jaishankar held several bilateral meetings with his global counterparts on Tuesday at the United Nations headquarters and in New York. He will participate in the general debate of the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly on Saturday.