Relations between India and China have been uneasy for a long time.
It has become more tense after the Galvan Valley conflict. Several rounds of talks have taken place between the two countries at the commander level.
Despite this, no solution has been found. Amidst all this, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Wednesday that normalcy in bilateral relations with China can be achieved only with the traditional deployment of troops.
He has currently rejected any kind of talks with Beijing.
Responding to a question on the current state of India’s relations with China during his interaction with Indian expatriates in the Malaysian capital, Jaishankar said, “My first duty towards Indians is to protect the border and I will never compromise in this regard.” Cannot compromise. Who doesn’t want good relations with their neighbors? But every relationship has to be established on some basis.
Jaishankar said, “We are still in talks with China. I talk to my counterpart. We keep meeting from time to time. Our military commanders talk to each other. But our position is very clear that there was an agreement between us. There is the Line of Actual Control (LAC). We have a tradition of not bringing troops to that line. Both of our military bases are located at some distance away, which is our traditional place of deployment. And we want that normalcy.”
He said that the normal situation in terms of army deployment on the border will become the basis for taking forward relations with China. He said that in the case of China, relations have been difficult for several reasons, including the fact that there is a border dispute between the two sides.
Jaishankar said, “But despite the border dispute for many years, we actually built important relations because we agreed that when we negotiate the border dispute, we will both agree that we will Will not deploy troops on the border. And we will never have a situation where there is violence and bloodshed.
He said this consensus began in the late 1980s and was reflected in several agreements. “Now unfortunately, border agreements were broken in 2020, the reasons for which are still not clear to us,” he said. “In fact, there was violence and bloodshed on the border.”