Foreign minister Jaishankar’s comments suggest unilateral change of status quo along China border, says Shashi Tharoor

Tharoor said that Jaishankar's remarks showed that there are outstanding issues with China along the LAC which required the minister to meet with military commanders.

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Thursday said that the comments made by India’s external affairs minister S Jaishankar, during his discussion with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, suggested that the status quo on the Line of Actual Control with China has been disturbed. Tharoor made the remarks on Twitter, quoting the original tweets by Jaishankar earlier on Wednesday.

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor. (PTI)

Jaishankar met with China’s foreign minister Wang Yi on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) foreign ministers’ meeting in Dushanbe on Wednesday.

The bilateral discussion between the two sides went on for an hour and focussed on the border issues between the two countries along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in India’s western sector, Jaishankar had said.

Following the discussion, Jaishankar outlined that the two sides had agreed to convene an early meeting of the senior military commanders.

“Highlighted that unilateral change of status quo is not acceptable. Full restoration and maintenance of peace and tranquillity in border areas is essential for development of our ties. Agreed on convening an early meeting of the Senior Military Commanders,” he tweeted.

In his reply to this tweet, Tharoor said that the minister’s remarks showed that there are outstanding issues with China along the LAC which required the minister to meet with military commanders.

“This suggests that there HAS been a unilateral change of status quo on the Sino-Indian border, that peace & tranquillity have been disturbed, & that there ARE outstanding issues along the LAC that require our EAM to meet w/Military Commanders. Diplomatic code2confirm our concerns!” Tharoor tweeted earlier in the day.

Tharoor’s comments came as Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said that his agenda about national security for a defence committee meeting on Wednesday was not accepted by the members of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Gandhi walked out of the meeting before it ended along with the other Congress ministers in the meeting. Pakistan, the border issue with China and the Taliban retaking territories with Afghanistan were listed in Gandhi’s agenda.

While the committee had met to “review the working of cantonment boards,” Gandhi said that the discussion should rather be about more pressing security issues like the border stand-off with China in eastern Ladakh.