International

Relationship With China โ€˜Not Normalโ€™, Says EAM Jaishankar After Meeting Chinese FM

UNSC Jaishankar

After three-hour talks with visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi today, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar described ties as โ€œWork In Progressโ€ and progressing in slower pace than desirable. Because of the border friction, the relationship is โ€œnot normalโ€, he stressed. 

Mr Jaishankar, speaking to media, said: โ€œFrictions, tensions rising from Chinese deployments since April 2020 cannot be reconciled with a normal relationship. Restoration of peace and tranquillity must find full expression in talks.โ€

โ€œIf you ask me if our relationship today is normal, then my answer is โ€˜no it is not normalโ€™ (because of the Chinese deployments). Our effort today is to sort out the issue in its entirety,โ€ he said.

The discussions centred on bilateral relations that had been disturbed by Chinaโ€™s actions at the border, the EAM added. 

The Foreign Minister said that in Ladakh, there were still ongoing friction areas and there was โ€œprogress in other areasโ€. โ€œOur discussion today was how to take this forward. So long as there are very large deployments in the border areas, clearly the border area situation is not normal. We have a situation there which is not normal,โ€ he said.

โ€œThere should not be attempts to unilaterally change status quo.โ€

Mr Jaishankar said the relationship was based on โ€œthree mutualsโ€- mutual respect, mutual sensitivity, and mutual interest.

The EAM also informed that he had raised Indiaโ€™s objections to Wangโ€™s comments on Kashmir at an event in Pakistan.

The Chinese Minister, in his opening speech at the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Pakistan, had said: โ€œOn Kashmir, we have heard again today the calls of many of our Islamic friends. And China shares the same hope.โ€

He had referred to the comments and had conveyed why India found them objectionable, Mr Jaishankar highlighted. 

โ€œI conveyed that we hope that China will follow an independent policy with respect to India and not allow its policies to be influenced by other countries and other relationships,โ€ he said.

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