Amid Border Issue, China Shouldn’t Expect…”: S Jaishankar

Nagpur: 

Amid a stand-off at the border, China should not expect other relations to move on normally, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said today.

Diplomacy continues and sometimes solutions to difficult situations do not come in haste, he said while speaking on ‘Bharat’s Rise in Geopolitics’ at an event in Nagpur.

The borders between India and China are not mutually agreed and it was decided that both sides would not amass troops and would keep the other informed about their movements, he said. But the neighbouring nation violated this agreement in 2020, he added.

It brought its troops in large numbers to the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and the Galwan incident happened, S Jaishankar said.

The Minister said he explained to his Chinese counterpart that “unless a solution is found at the border, they should not expect other relations to move on normally”.

“That is impossible. You don’t want to fight and do trade at the same time. Meanwhile, diplomacy is going on and sometimes solutions to difficult situations do not come in haste,” he asserted.

Asked about the recent rift with the Maldives, S Jaishankar said, “What we are trying to do, and with a lot of success in the last 10 years, is to build a very strong connection.”