India-China relations “much better than before”: EAM Jaishankar

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Wednesday, while talking at CNN News 18 Rising Bharat Summit 2025, said that India’s relationship with China is much better than before.

Jaishankar said that India and China are now discussing collateral issues related to COVID-19, direct flights and resumption of the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra.

“The relationship is much better than before. I think the disengagement, particularly the Depsang Demchok, was important,” he said.

Jaishankar said that these issues have been a force build-up over the years.

“We are now addressing, to some extent, the issues on the border because there has been a force build-up over a period of years. There were many other things that also happened during this period. Some of it was collateral for the situation. Some of it was a carryover from the Covid era,” he said.

Jaishankar added that the relations between the two countries during 2020-2024 were not in anyone’s interest.

“For example, our direct flights stopped during Covid. They were not resumed. The Kailash Mansarovar yatra stopped during Covid, it did not again resume. So, I think there is work to be done. We are at it. We are trying to see whether lot of this post-Covid and parallel to the border tension, the combination of these issues- how much we can progress on this. We are looking at it because, at the end of the day, we’ve always maintained that the situation that we saw between 2020-2024 was not in the interest of either country; it was not in the interest of our relationship. And I think there is a recognition of that now. I think we are moving in a positive direction,” he said.

Earlier in October 2024, India and China reached an agreement on patrolling arrangements in the Depsang Plains and Demchok, two friction points along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). The understanding was reached after earlier disengagement in other friction points in eastern Ladakh following meetings at diplomatic and military levels.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping met in Kazan in October last year on the sidelines of the 16th BRICS Summit.

PM Modi had welcomed the agreement for complete disengagement and resolution of issues that arose in 2020 in the India-China border areas and underscored the importance of properly handling differences and disputes and not allowing them to disturb peace and tranquillity.