Peace and tranquility in the border areas remain the bedrock of normal relations between India and China, though it has been “maliciously linked” to the resolution of the border issue from time to time, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Tuesday. Jaishankar’s remarks while addressing a conference on “China’s Foreign Policy and International Relations in the New Era” organized by the Center for Contemporary Chinese Studies (CCCS) came against the backdrop of a protracted military standoff in the Ladakh sector. . In recent months, Jaishankar has maintained that the overall relationship with China cannot be normalized until there is peace and tranquility along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
He said India needs to prepare for “more effective competition, especially in our immediate periphery”. On the international stage, building deeper relationships and fostering a better understanding of India’s interests strengthens the country, he added. “Peace and tranquility in the border areas clearly remain the basis of normal relations. It has been mischievously linked to sorting out the border issue from time to time,” Jaishankar said.
“The truth is that the premise was and remains much more modest; and even that has been breached in 2020,” he said, referring to China’s troop build-up in the LAC and attempts to change the status quo in the border areas. India’s quest for a “more balanced and stable relationship” with China spans “multiple domains and many options”. He said: “As 2020 unfolds, they are clearly focusing on effective border defence. This has been remarkably done even in the midst of Covid.”
Noting that both countries must show willingness to take a long-term view of their ties, he said, “Establishing a post-2020 India-China modus vivendi is not easy. Still, it is a task that cannot be put off. And this can become sustainable only on the basis of three mutual relationships: mutual respect, mutual sensitivity and common interest.” He added: “The last few years have been a period of serious challenges, both for the relationship and for the continent’s prospects. A continuation of the current impasse will not benefit either India or China. New norms of posture will inevitably lead to new norms of response.”
Looking back on seven decades of engagement with China, Jaishankar said it would be fair to say that India “basically took a determined bilateral approach” and there were many reasons for this, including “a sense of Asian solidarity [and] suspicion of third party interests parties that were based on other experiences”. Indian politics has in the past shown a “remarkable degree of self-restraint”, leading to the expectation that “others may have veto power over its choices”, he said. “However, that period is already behind us. The ‘new era’ is clearly not just for China,” Jaishankar said.
While pointing out the differences between India and China, he said the problem is the structural differences that have developed over the past 60 years. “They have two broad metrics: one, 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 and recognize that there is a connection between the two,” he said. On the economic front, progress is key in expanding production and promoting Atmanirbhar Bharat (independent India), Jaishankar said.
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