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Delink border clash from bilateral ties, China to India
“It is hoped that India and China will move in the same way, properly manage differences, promote pragmatic cooperation, and push bilateral relations back on track,” said a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said.
The India-China border problem should not be linked to bilateral ties, Beijing said on Friday, responding to external affairs minister S Jaishankar’s statement that last year’s events at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh had “profoundly disturbed” bilateral ties.
The Chinese foreign ministry said Beijing hoped that bilateral relations could be put back on track through pragmatic cooperation.
Speaking at an online conference on Thursday, Jaishankar had put forward “eight principles” and three “mutuals” – respect, sensitivity, and interests – as part of the Sino-India framework for bilateral ties.
The Indian minister emphasised that mutual respect, sensitivity and interests could not be brushed aside as the two neighbours continue protracted attempts to resolve the ongoing military standoff in Ladakh.
The Chinese foreign ministry’s spokesperson, Zhao Lijian said China had taken note of Jaishankar’s comments.
“Foreign minister Jaishankar emphasised the importance of China-India relations and demonstrated the importance that India attaches to China-India relations. China affirms this,” Zhao said at the regular ministry briefing.
“At the same time, I also want to emphasise that border issues should not be linked to bilateral relations. This is an important experience in the continuous development of bilateral relations over the past years,” Zhao said.
The spokesperson added: “It is hoped that India and China will move in the same way, properly manage differences, promote pragmatic cooperation, and push bilateral relations back on track.”
Not too long ago, New Delhi might have at least partially agreed with Zhao’s assertion of delinking the disputed border and the progress of overall bilateral ties.
In January 2020, external affairs ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar had said that as talks continued to settle the border dispute, the two sides should ensure the issue does not “cloud the overall relationship”.
Kumar was speaking after the December, 2019 meeting of the two Special Representatives on the border issue – National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and State Councillor and foreign minister, Wang Yi – in New Delhi.
“There was a feeling it (border issue) should be addressed from a strategic perspective of India-China relations. While discussions continue under the Special Representatives framework, there should be peace and tranquillity on the border,” Kumar had said on the meeting between Doval and Wang.
Officials from both countries have also earlier spoken about respecting each other’s core interests.
The ongoing military standoff since May and the death of 20 Indian soldiers during the Galwan Valley clash have brought in darker clouds over the ties. (China is yet to reveal People’s Liberation Army’s casualty figures from the deadly clash.)
That Jaishankar mentioned mutual respect, sensitivity, and interests – at an online conference organised by the New Delhi-based Institute of Chinese Studies – means that New Delhi feels that Beijing isn’t really concerned about the three parametres in its ties with India.
“Any expectation that [the three mutuals] can be brushed aside and that life can carry on undisturbed despite the situation at the border, that is simply not realistic,” Jaishankar said.
