India-China relations: Galwan issue not resolved yet; China disregarded border pacts, says EAM S Jaishankar

External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar on Sunday (August 21) said that China has disregarded the border pacts with India and that it's going to affect the bilateral ties between the two countries.

Jaishankar was speaking at Sao Paulo, Brazil, as part of his six-day visit to South America aimed at boosting India's ties with the region.

Chinese and Indian troops are engaged in a prolonged standoff in Eastern Ladakh. The two sides have so far held 16 rounds of talks to resolve the standoff which erupted on May 5, 2020, following a violent clash in the Pangong lake areas.

 

What Jaishankar said: While answering to a question on Indo-China relations, Jaishankar said China has disregarded agreements going back to the 1990s which prohibits bringing troops to the border area.

"They have disregarded that. You know what happened in the Galwan Valley a few years ago. That problem has not been resolved and that is clearly casting a shadow," Jaishankar said.

Jaishankar also said that a relationship cannot be a one-way street and mutual respect has to be there."They are our neighbours. Everybody wants to get along with their neighbours. In personal life and country-wise as well. But everybody wants to get along on reasonable terms. If I respect you. You must respect me," he said.

What is the significance of his statement now? As Jaishankar said, the Galwan valley problem has not been resolved yet. There have been multiple reports about Chinese construction near the Indian border. This also means that nothing concrete has come out of the 16th round of peace talk between India and China.

The Indian and Chinese armies had agreed to work out a mutually acceptable resolution for the remaining issues in eastern Ladakh during the 16th round of India-China Corps Commander Level Meeting on July 17.

Last week Jaishankar had said that the relationship between India and China is going through an "extremely difficult phase".

India-China border standoff: The India-China border dispute covers the 3,488-km-long Line of Actual Control (LAC).

• The troops of India and China were engaged in a 73-day stand-off in Doklam tri-junction in 2017, which triggered fears of a war between the two neighbours.

• In 2020, India and China troops clashed in the Galwan Valley in Eastern Ladakh. India lost 20 soldiers, and there were casualties on the other side too. It was India's first violent clash since 1962.
• Since then, both sides have increased deployment near the LAC and there have been several rounds of talk.

Jaishankar's visit to South America: Besides Brazil, Jaishankar will visit Paraguay and Argentina during his trip. It is his first visit to the South American region as the external affairs minister.

"EAM's visit to these 3 countries will provide an opportunity to continue the ongoing high-level engagements with our partners in Latin American countries (LAC), explore new areas of cooperation in the post-pandemic era," a MEA press release said.