Lagatar24 Desk
Singapore, Nov.19: India and China are going through a “particularly bad patch” in their relations, according to Foreign Minister S Jaishankar, because Beijing has taken a series of steps in violation of accords for which it has yet to get a “credible explanation.” He stated that it is up to the Chinese leadership to decide where the bilateral relationship should go.
“I don’t think the Chinese have any doubt on where we stand on our relationship and what’s not gone right with it. I’ve been meeting my counterpart Wang Yi a number of times. As you would have experienced, I speak fairly clear, reasonably understandably there is no lack of clarity so if they want to hear it I am sure they would have heard it,” Jaishankar said during the event “Greater Power Competition: The Emerging World Order” at the Bloomberg New Economic Forum in Singapore on Friday.
“We are going through a particularly bad patch in our relationship because they have taken a set of actions in violation of agreements for which they still don’t have a credible explanation and that indicates some rethink about where they want to take our relationship, but that’s for them to answer,” Mr Jaishankar said, in an apparent reference to the eastern Ladakh border clash with China.
Following a deadly conflict in the Pangong lake areas in eastern Ladakh, a border standoff between Indian and Chinese military occurred in May of last year. Both sides gradually increased their deployment by bringing in tens of thousands of troops and heavy equipment.
After the tragic conflict in the Galwan valley in June of last year, tensions have risen. The two sides concluded the disengagement process along the north and south banks of Pangong Lake in February, and in the Gogra area in August, as a result of a series of military and diplomatic talks. On October 10, the most recent round of military discussions came to a halt.
The two sides have agreed to hold the military discussions as soon as possible in order to achieve the goal of complete disengagement along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh.
