Jaishankar: India-China ties going through bad patch

India has told China that progress in the disengagement process in eastern Ladakh was essential for the restoration of peace and tranquillity and that it is the basis for the development of overall bilateral ties.

During his previous meeting with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Tajikistan’s capital Dushanbe on September 16, Jaishankar emphasised that the two sides should work towards early resolution of the remaining issues along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh while fully abiding by bilateral agreements and protocols.

“I don’t think the Chinese have any doubt on where we stand on our relationship and what’s not gone right with it. I’ve been meeting my counterpart Wang Yi a number of times. As you would’ve experienced, I speak fairly clear, reasonably understandably (and) there is no lack of clarity so if they want to hear it, I am sure they would have heard it,” Jaishankar said in response to a question at a panel discussion on “Greater Power Competition: The Emerging World Order” at the Bloomberg New Economic Forum in Singapore. 

“We are going through a particularly bad patch in our relationship because they have taken a set of actions in violation of agreements for which they still don’t have a credible explanation and that indicates some rethink about where they want to take our relationship, but that’s for them to answer,” he further said, in an apparent reference to the eastern Ladakh border clash with China.

The eastern Ladakh border standoff between the Indian and Chinese militaries erupted on May 5 last year following a violent clash in the Pangong Lake areas and both sides gradually enhanced their deployment by rushing in tens of thousands of soldiers as well as heavy weaponry.

The tension escalated following a deadly clash in the Galwan Valley on June 15 last year. As a result of a series of military and diplomatic talks, the two sides completed the disengagement process in the north and south banks of the Pangong Lake in February and in the Gogra area in August.