According to Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar, the situation between India and China in the Ladakh region of the western Himalayas is unstable and dangerous, with armed units stationed near one another in some areas.
When the two sides clashed in the area in the middle of 2020, at least 24 troops were killed, but the conflict has since subsided thanks to several rounds of diplomatic and military negotiations.
In December, violence broke out in the eastern part of the unmarked boundary between the two nuclear-armed Asian superpowers, but no one was killed.
In some areas, our deployments are quite close together and, according to military assessments, are thus quite risky, Jaishankar said at an India Today summit. “The situation, in my opinion, still remains very unstable,” he added.
According to him, the border dispute cannot be settled in accordance with the September 2020 in-principle agreement he signed with his Chinese counterpart before India-China relations can return to normal.
The Chinese have battled with having to fulfil their end of the bargain.
Even though both sides’ soldiers have left several places, negotiations are still going on over issues that have not been settled, according to Jaishankar.
“We have made it very clear to the Chinese that a breach of peace and serenity is not acceptable and that we want the rest of our relationship to proceed as usual. Simply said, that is untenable.
On the fringes of a G20 summit hosted by India this month, Jaishankar claimed he spoke with Qin Gang, China’s new foreign minister, about the predicament.
Jaishankar expressed optimism that New Delhi could make the G20 “more faithful to its global purpose” during India’s G20 chairmanship this year.
“The G20 should not be exclusively a forum or debating club for the industrialised north. There is a need to include all global issues. That argument has already been expressed quite clearly, Jaishankar said.
In the past three weeks, there have been two G20 ministerial gatherings in India, but Russia’s 13-month invasion of Ukraine has overshadowed them.
