JOIN USWill not agree to any change in status quo: Jaishankar on eastern Ladakh standoff
India will not accept any change in the alignment of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China or in the status quo along the disputed boundary between the two nations, no matter how long it takes to resolve the military stand-off in eastern Ladakh, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said.
“We are absolutely clear that we will not agree to any change in the status quo. Any attempt to change the LAC unilaterally by one side. So however complex it is, however long it takes, however difficult it is, I think that clarity is what guides us,” Jaishankar said during an interactive session at Institut français des relations internationales (Ifri) in Paris on late on Tuesday.
The External Affairs Minister was asked how optimist he was about the success of the negotiations between India and China for resolving the 22-month-long stand-off along the LAC – the de facto boundary between the two nations – in eastern Ladakh.
“I would say other than optimism, it is very important to have perseverance. Believe me, I have got those qualities in reasonable measure and my system has it in the reasonable measure which is more important,” Jaishankar said.
He said that the military commanders of India and China had been holding talks and significant headway had been made in many of the friction points along the LAC.
India’s relations with China hit a new low over the 22-month-long military stand-off along the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh. The stand-off started in April-May 2020 with the Chinese PLA amassing a large number of troops along the LAC in an apparent move to change the status quo along the disputed boundary between the two nations and push the line westward to encroach into the territory claimed by India. The Indian Army had also deployed additional troops to counter the Chinese Army’s move.
Though protracted negotiations between the two sides resulted in mutual withdrawal of troops from both banks of Pangong Tso and the Gogra Post last year, the stand-off could not be resolved in other places along the LAC.
“We will carry on with this (negotiation) and disengagement is right now the goal, because it is only when disengagement happens we can then start talking about de-escalation,” he added.
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