Business cannot be as usual with China unless PLA restores status quo: India

"Business cannot be as usual” between India and China unless and until the communist country pulls back its soldiers and restores the status quo ante that existed before the stand-off along the disputed boundary started, Foreign Secretary Harsh Shringla said on Friday.

He said that the current situation in India-China border areas was “unprecedented”. “We have never had this sort of situation since 1962 (India-China war). We have also, for the first time, lost lives of soldiers in the last forty years,” the Foreign Secretary said, referring to the June 15 violent face-off between Indian Army and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in Galwan Valley.

“There has been an attempt (by the Chinese PLA) to take a unilateral action to change the facts on the ground (along the India-China Line of Actual Control),” Shringla said during a webinar hosted by the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA) in New Delhi. “We will be firm and resolute in resisting this.”

The tough talks by Foreign Secretary came a day after External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar indicated that he could hold a “reasonable chat” with his counterpart in Chinese Government, Wang Yi, on the side-line of a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Moscow on September 10.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh also had a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Wei Fenghe on the side-line of an SCO meet in the capital of Russia on Friday.

“There will be no compromise on sovereignty and territorial integrity (of India),” Shringla said. He, however, added that India, being “a responsible nation”, is “always ready” to hold talks with China. “We have kept communications lines open (between New Delhi and Beijing).”

He referred to the series of meetings between the senior commanders of the Indian Army and the Chinese PLA had over the past four months after the military stand-off started along the LAC, the de facto border between the two nations, in eastern Ladakh in early May. He said that the diplomats of India and China were also holding talks both in Beijing and New Delhi.

The local commanders of the Indian Army and the Chinese PLA too had yet another round of talks on Friday, the fifth since Monday. They discussed ways to defuse tension on the northern and the southern banks of the Pangong Tso (lake), but the talks ended without any headway, much like the earlier meetings.

“But it is a fact that it cannot be business as usual. Unless there is peace and tranquillity in our border areas, the normal bilateral relationship (between India and China) will be affected,” Foreign Secretary said. “There is a linkage between what is happening on the border and the larger relationship”.