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India -China Relation:-External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Saturday said the agreement with China on patrolling the Line of Actual Control (LAC) does not mean that the issues between the two countries have been resolved, though the withdrawal of troops has provided an opportunity to consider the next step.
He credited the army for the agreement, which worked in “very unimaginable” circumstances.
Jaishankar said at a program in Pune, “As per the agreement (of withdrawal of troops) reached on October 21, patrolling will be done in Depsang and Demchok. This will now enable us to consider the next step. It is not that everything has been resolved, but this is the first phase of withdrawal of troops and we have been successful in reaching that stage.”
‘We stuck to our word’ – Foreign Minister
Responding to a question during an interaction with students here, the Foreign Minister said that it will still take time to normalize relations. He said that it will naturally take time to re-establish trust and work together.
He said that when Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Chinese President Xi Jinping in Kazan, Russia for the BRICS summit, it was decided that the foreign ministers and national security advisors of the two countries would meet and see how to move forward.
Jaishankar said, “If we have reached here today, one of the reasons is that we have made a very determined effort to stick to our point and keep our point. The army was present there (on the LAC) in very unimaginable circumstances to protect the country and the army did its job and diplomacy also did its job.
‘Able to deploy the army effectively’
He said that India has improved its infrastructure over the past decade. He said that one of the problems was that in earlier years the infrastructure on the border was really neglected. Jaishankar said, “Today we are putting five times more resources per year than a decade ago, which is yielding results and enabling the army to really deploy effectively.”
A few days ago, an agreement was reached between India and China regarding the withdrawal of troops and patrolling near the LAC in eastern Ladakh, which is a major breakthrough towards ending the deadlock that has been going on for more than four years. Relations were strained after a fierce clash between the soldiers of the two countries in the Galwan Valley in June 2020. This was the most serious military conflict between the two sides in the last few decades.
‘Patrol was being obstructed’
He said that since September 2020, India was in talks with China to find a solution. The Foreign Minister said that there are various aspects of this solution. He said that the most important thing is that the troops have to retreat, because they are very close to each other and there was a possibility of something happening.
He said, “After this, a big issue is how you manage the border and how you negotiate the border agreement. Whatever is happening right now is related to the first phase, which is the withdrawal of troops. “The Foreign Minister said that India and China agreed in some places after 2020 on how the soldiers would return to their bases, but an important thing was related to patrolling.
Jaishankar said, “Patrolling was being disrupted and we were trying to negotiate this for the last two years. So what happened on October 21 was that in those particular areas Demchok and Depsang, we reached an understanding that patrolling would start again in the same way,
