S Jaishankar on Ladakh standoff: ‘State of the border to determine the state of India-China relationship’

The state of the Line of Actual Control will determine the state of the relationship between India and China, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Monday, squarely blaming the XI Jinping-led country for strained ties.

Speaking at the launch of the Asia Society Policy Institute in Delhi, the minister said much of Asia`s future depends on how the ties between the two countries develop in the foreseeable future, and for the ties to return to a positive trajectory, they must be based on mutual sensitivity, mutual respected and mutual interest.

“Much of the future of Asia depends on how relations between India and China develop in the foreseeable future. For ties to return to a positive trajectory and remain sustainable, they must be based on the three mutuals: mutual sensitivity, mutual respect and mutual interest. Their current status is, of course, well known to all of you. I can only reiterate that the state of the border will determine the state of the relationship,” he said.

China has indulged in aggressive posturing at the Line of Actual Control since 2020 when the soldiers of both countries clashed in Eastern Ladakh following weeks of tension on the border due to the communist country’s attempt to transgress LAC. 20 Indian soldiers and an unspecified number of Chinese soldiers died in brutal hand-to-hand combat. Multiple rounds of India-China military-level talks have brought down the tension by a few notches but the standoff has continued unabated with reports of the communist country rapidly enhancing infrastructure near the de facto border.

“Asia’s prospects and challenges are today very much dependent on developments in the Indo-Pacific. In fact, the concept itself is a reflection of divided Asia, as some have a vested interest in keeping the region less cohesive and interactive. That the global commons and the international community are better served by collaborative endeavours like the Quad apparently leaves them cold. Developing even a basic strategic consensus in Asia is, therefore, clearly a formidable task. As the international order evolves, this desire to selectively retain elements of the 1945 situation while transforming others – and we see that in the UN as well – complicates world politics,” Jaishankar further said in the event.

“Precisely because Asia is so energetic and creative, it would like to benefit from the open doors of other regions. That obviously cannot be a one-way street,” he added.

Jaishankar also said that the “three shocks” of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ukraine conflict and climatic disturbances have adversely impacted the Asian economy.

“Together, they make a powerful case for more engines of growth and resilient and reliable supply chains. There is a parallel debate underway in the digital world that focuses on trust and transparency. How these will translate into strategic outcomes is still too early to predict,” he asserted in the meeting.