Weeks after Modi-Xi handshake in Bali, India says its ties with China not normal

We have been very clear with the Chinese that we will not tolerate any unilateral change to the Line of Actual Control, S Jaishankar said

India’s relationship with China cannot be normal as long as the neighbouring country continues with its military build-up along the disputed boundary between the two nations, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar told the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.

Jaishankar’s comment on the state of ties between New Delhi and Beijing came three weeks after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping had exchanged courtesies during the G20 summit at Bali in Indonesia on November 15 last.

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“Diplomatically, we have been very clear. We have been very clear with the Chinese that we will not tolerate any unilateral change to the Line of Actual Control (LAC),” the external affairs minister said, while replying to queries by the MPs after making a statement on the Modi Government’s foreign policy. “And that so long as they continue to seek to do that, and if they have built up forces, which in our minds constitute a serious concern in the border areas, then our relationship is not normal.”

The Modi-Xi handshake in Bali had been the first such engagement between the two leaders after the military stand-off along the LAC in eastern Ladakh had started in April-May 2020. Though the two leaders had not held any formal bilateral meeting on the sideline of the G20 summit, the exchange of courtesies between them had triggered speculation about a thaw in the bilateral relations, which had hit a new low over the past two-and-a-half years.

The stand-off had started with the Chinese People’s Liberation Army amassing a large number of troops along the disputed boundary between the two nations in eastern Ladakh – thus making a unilateral move to change the status quo and push the LAC, the de facto boundary, westward into the territory of India. The Indian Army too had responded to the Chinese PLA’s aggressive moves with counter-deployment leading to the stand-off. The stand-off had reached a flash-point with the violent clash at Galwan Valley on June 15, 2020. The Indian Army had lost 20 of its soldiers. The Chinese PLA had much later admitted that it had also lost four of its personnel.

"And the abnormality of that (relations) has been in evidence in the last few years," the external affairs minister told the Rajya Sabha.

He said the military commanders of the two countries continued to engage each other.

“I think given the sensitivity of that matter, it is something which is left to the military commanders to deal with,” Jaishankar said.

The military commanders of the two sides so far held 16 rounds of parleys to resolve the stand-off. Though protracted negotiations led to mutual withdrawal of troops by both the Indian Army and the Chinese PLA from some of the face-off points along the LAC, the stand-off could not be resolved completely so far. New Delhi has also been concerned over China’s continued military build-up and construction of infrastructure along its disputed boundary with India.