Dragon’s sting: ‘India-China relations in bad patch’, New Delhi confirms
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: In a rare diplomatic rap on the knuckles, India on Friday asked China to decide where it wants to take its relationship with New Delhi, stating that the two countries are going through a “particularly bad patch” in their ties because Beijing has taken actions contrary to the bilateral agreements and has failed to give a ‘credible explanation” for these violations.
In Singapore, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said, “I don’t think the Chinese have any doubt about where we stand in 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.”
His remarks came in response to a question at a panel “Greater Power Competition: The Emerging World Order” at the Bloomberg New Economic Forum, organized in the island nation, the media reported.
“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. That indicates some rethink about where they want to take our relationship, but that’s for them to answer,” Dr. Jaishankar said, in an apparent reference to the Eastern Ladakh border clash with China in the summer of 2020 and subsequent events.
This border standoff between Chinese and Indian armies erupted on May 5, 2020, after the People’s Republican Army (PLA)’s invasion, leading to a violent clash in the Pangong Lake areas. Both sides gradually enhanced their deployment by rushing in thousands of soldiers and heavy weaponry. This was followed by a deadly clash in Galwan Valley on June 15.
After a series of military and diplomatic talks, they completed the disengagement process in the north and south banks of the Pangong Lake in February and in Gogra in August. Their last round of military talks on October 10 ended in a stalemate. On Thursday, they decided to meet for the 14th round of military talks at the earliest for complete disengagement in remaining friction points along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Eastern Ladakh.
But now China has shifted focus from Ladakh, without resolving the issues, to Arunachal Pradesh to bargain from India in both eastern and western sectors of the international border. Recently, Beijing encroached upon Indian land in the northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh and built two enclaves there. Also, the media reports said, it has encroached upon some 25,000 hectares of land in Bhutan.
