EAM Jaishankar: Sino-Indian relations going through 'very difficult phase'

Munich (Germany): India's relations with China was going through a “very difficult phase” after Beijing violated border agreements, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Saturday, underlining that the “state of the border will determine the state of the relationship”.

Jaishankar, addressing the Munich Security Conference (MSC) 2022 Panel Discussion here, said that there is a problem India is having with China, “And the problem is that for 45 years there was peace, there was stable border management, there were no military casualties on the border from 1975,” he said in response to a question from the host.

“That changed because we had agreements with China not to bring military forces to [what] we call the border, but it’s [actually the] Line of Actual Control, and the Chinese violated those agreements,” Jaishankar said.

He said that “the state of the border will determine the state of the relationship, that’s natural”.

“So obviously relations with China right now are going through a very difficult phase,” the external affairs minister said, adding that India’s relations with the West were quite decent even before June 2020.

The eastern Ladakh border standoff between the Indian and Chinese militaries erupted following a violent clash in the Pangong lake areas and both sides gradually enhanced their deployment by rushing in tens of thousands of soldiers as well as heavy weaponry.

The tension escalated following a deadly clash in the Galwan Valley on June 15, 2020.

Jaishankar participated in a panel discussion on the Indo-Pacific at the MSC which is aimed at extensively deliberating on the escalating tension between the NATO countries and Russia over Ukraine.