In blunt message for China, Jaishankar talks of India’s new normals in posture

India on Tuesday asserted that peace and tranquillity in border areas are essential for normal relations with China, with external affairs minister S Jaishankar saying that “new normals of posture will inevitably lead to new normals of responses”.

Jaishankar’s remarks, made while delivering an address on the theme “China’s foreign policy and international relations in the new era” at a conference organised by the Center for Contemporary China Studies (CCCS), came at a time when bilateral relations are at an all-time low because of the military standoff in Ladakh sector.

The current standoff on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) has been “mischievously conflated” with resolving the boundary question, Jaishankar said. Relations between the two countries can only become sustainable on the basis of mutual respect, mutual sensitivity and mutual interest, he said.

“Peace and tranquillity in the border areas clearly remains the basis for normal relations. From time to time, this has been mischievously conflated with the sorting out of the boundary question,” Jaishankar said, according to extracts of the speech posted on his Twitter handle.

In an apparent reference to the massing of troops on the LAC by China and attempts to alter the status quo in border areas, Jaishankar said, “The truth is that the prerequisite has been and remains one much more modest; and even that was breached in 2020.”

He added, “The last few years have been a period of serious challenge, both for the relationship and for the prospects of the continent. The continuation of the current impasse will not benefit either India or China. New normals of posture will inevitably lead to new normals of responses.”

Jaishankar has led the pushback against the Chinese leadership’s contention that the standoff on the LAC should be put in its “appropriate place” while the two countries take forward relations in other areas such as trade. He has maintained that the overall relationship cannot be normalised till there is peace and normalcy in the border areas.

India’s search for a “more balanced and stable relationship” with China stretches across “multiple domains and many options”. He said: “Given the developments of 2020, they obviously focus on an effective defence of the border. This was notably undertaken even in the midst of Covid.”

Noting that the two countries must display the willingness to take a long-term view of their ties, he said: “Establishing a modus vivendi between India and China after 2020 is not easy. Yet, it is a task that cannot be set aside. And this can only become sustainable on the basis of three mutuals: mutual respect, mutual sensitivity and mutual interest.”

Looking back at seven decades of engagement with China, Jaishankar said there were many reasons why India had “essentially taken a determinedly bilateral approach” for this, including a “sense of Asian solidarity [and] a suspicion of third party interests that emanated from other experiences”.

Indian policy in the past exhibited a “remarkable degree of self-restraint” that led to the expectation that “others can have a veto over its choices”, he said. “That period, however, is now behind us. The ‘new era’ is apparently not just for China,” Jaishankar said.

While pointing to divergences between India and China, he said structural gaps developed over the past 60 years present a challenge. “These have two broad metrics: one, the Cumulative Border Balance (CBB) and the other, Comprehensive National Power (CNP),” he said.

“Any objective analysis of the relationship must necessarily take both into account, recognising that there is a linkage between them,” he said.

In the economic field, progress in expanding manufacturing and promoting Atmanirbhar Bharat (self-reliant India) are key, Jaishankar said. India must also prepare to “compete more effectively, especially in our immediate periphery”. On the international stage, building deeper relationships and promoting a better understanding of India’s interests strengthens the country, he said.

Sameer Patil, senior fellow at the Observer Research Foundation (ORF), said India’s response should be seen in the context of the triumphalism that has marked Chinese President Xi Jinping’s preparations for a third term.

“This is also a reflection of the fact that China has been uncompromising in its approach and unwilling to resolve the border standoff, which is leaving Indian policy-makers no option but to reassess and re-examine the fundamentals governing the existing China policy. This re-examination assumes even more urgency in light of President Xi’s remarks at the national party congress,” Patil said.