Noting that China violated agreements in 2020 by bringing a number of forces along the LAC in Ladakh, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday said that India responded by counter-deploying troops and there is “very abnormal deployment” along the Line of Actual Control.
Speaking at a Viksit Bharat programme in Kolkata on Tuesday, Jaishankar said China brought troops when India was under COVID lockdown, and “none of us should disregard the security of the country.”
He said, “We had a 1962 experience useful to remind us a bit as some people are in denial…but it wasn’t just 1962. After 1962, in 1988, Rajiv Gandhi went to China. In many ways, that was the key step towards normalizing our ties. And then, there was a very clear understanding that we will discuss our boundary differences, but we will maintain our peace and tranquility on the border.”
“What changed now is what happened in 2020. In 2020, the Chinese in violation of multiple agreements brought a large number of forces at the border, and they did it at a time when we were under COVID lockdown in this country…We responded by counter-deploying our forces…And then, we had the clash in Galwan,” he asserted.
The EAM said that the tensions between the two countries is not a matter of what happened 62 years ago, but what is happening today on the border.
“And for four years, we both are deployed ahead of our normal base positions, normal patrolling zones out there. So it is a very abnormal deployment today along the Line of Actual Control…” Jaishankar said.
“Now given this tension between the two countries, it is not a matter of we had a conflict 62 years ago, it is what is happening today on the border. As Indian citizens, none of us, can or should disregard the security of our country…so we cannot carry on for the rest of life, saying it is not our concern. So, it is today a challenge,” he added.
Notably, in 2020, the Indian and Chinese troops clashed at Galwan, the same year the pandemic started.
Since May 2020, when the Chinese troops tried to aggressively change the status quo on LAC in eastern Ladakh, both sides have been deployed in forward positions near Patrolling Point 15, which emerged as a friction point in the wake of the Galwan clash.
Over 50,000 Indian soldiers have been stationed since 2020 at forward posts along the LAC, with advanced weapons to prevent any attempts to change the status quo unilaterally on the LAC.
Amid border tensions, in March, India and China exchanged views on ways of achieving complete disengagement and resolving the issues along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Western sector of India-China border areas.
Meanwhile, India, in January this year, while reiterating its long-standing position on China, said the two countries continue to engage on the diplomatic and military sides for some sort of resolution.
“India’s position on China is very well known. It is a relationship, which is not normal, but we have had dialogues both on the military side and on the diplomatic side in October and November. And the idea is that we engage so that we can have some sort of resolution,” Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Official Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said during weekly media briefing previously.
The two countries have been in a military standoff for the last three years since May 2020, when the Chinese tried to aggressively alter the status quo on the Line of Actual Control.
