Union minister for external affairs S Jaishankar on Friday told his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi to expedite the disengagement process in eastern Ladakh on the LAC and outlined that peace on the border is prerequisite to healthy ties between India and China.
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According to CNNNEWS18, Jaishankar conveyed the national sentiment to Wang Yi and maintained that peace and tranquillity at the border areas provide the foundation of stable and cooperative ties. He also pointed to agreements designed to strengthen those foundations and prevent the kind of situation that both nations are experiencing.
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Jaishankar said that the 2020 clashes in Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh due to Chinese aggression have impacted the relationship. He also told his counterpart that this incident cannot be reconciled into a normal relationship. “Disengagement needs to be taken forward as it is necessary to lead to de-escalation. My discussion was aimed at expediting the process. I was honest in conveying our national sentiment,” Jaishankar was quoted as saying by CNNNEWS18.
Jaishankar also raised the issues related to statements made by Yi with respect to the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir when he attended the foreign ministers’ summit of the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Islamabad as a special guest earlier this week.
Meanwhile, news agency ANI reported that there was no timeline given as to when the disengagement process would be completed. “There was no timeline. A parallel but a separate discussion took place in regard to sorting out the situation in border areas,” the union minister was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
Before meeting his counterpart, Wang Yi met National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and both of them held a long meeting. During their meeting, Doval too pointed out that the current state of India-China ties following the clashes in Galwan Valley in 2020 is not in mutual interest. Doval also told Yi that both nations will work together in the same direction to resolve the outstanding issues.
Following the clashes both sides have held corp-commander level discussions more than a dozen times to discuss disengagement and de-escalation along the friction points in eastern Ladakh. The Chinese side disengaged in February 2021 after several rounds of talks between military commanders and diplomats.
Union minister S Jaishankar also raised the issue of Indian students studying medicine in China. Wang Yi said that China will take a non-discriminatory approach towards Indian students.
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