Speaking at a webinar organised by the Lowy Institute, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said at a time India and China are grappling with the crisis at the Line of Actual Control amid the border stand-off involving soldiers, the real problem lies in China not complying with the well-defined, and that in such a scenario, it cannot be business as usual with Beijing.
Jaishankar said communication was not an issue over this crisis, as there have been many treaties to preserve peace and tranquility at the border. He emhasises that in complete breach of the treaties, China brought in its troops on its side of the border.
He said that the relationship will "naturally be disturbed" when China offers different reasons for its troop build-up.
The minister himself categorically confirmed that there was a very serious effect on the relationship. S Jaishankar admitted that a major challenge is how to get this relationship back on track.
“There were fatalities on the frontier for the first time since 1975. India lost 20 of its soldiers. This changed the national mood, said S Jaishankar.
He further claimed that the two nations maintained peace and tranquility on the border despite differences, and there has never been a violation of the kind seen since May 2020.
The EAM believed that because of the LAC crisis, the overall bilateral relationship is at risk, and that this was clearly emphasized when he met his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Moscow in September to discuss Eastern Ladakh tensions.
