External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on Wednesday met his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi and told him in no uncertain terms that unilateral change of status quo along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) was not acceptable to India. Jaishankar had a one-hour meeting with Wang Yi on the sidelines of the Dushanbe SCO Foreign Ministers Meeting.
“Discussions focused on the outstanding issues along the LAC in the Western Sector. Highlighted that unilateral change of status quo is not acceptable. Full restoration and maintenance of peace and tranquility in border areas is essential for development of our ties. Agreed on convening an early meeting of the Senior Military Commanders,” Jaishankar said after the meeting.
During the meeting, both parties also agreed on convening an early meeting between senior military commanders of India and China.
India and China have been locked in a military standoff at multiple friction points in eastern Ladakh since May last year. However, the two sides completed the withdrawal of troops and weapons from the North and South banks of Pangong Lake in February following a series of military and diplomatic talks.
The impasse between Indian and Chinese troops at the LAC is “visibly impacting” bilateral ties “negatively”, Jaishankar told Wang. Highlighting the lack of movement in the disengagement process apart from the initial withdrawal of troops around the Pangong area in February, he said that India had hoped China would “follow through” in resolving issues at the LAC, as had been agreed in a five-point agreement with Wang when the two Ministers had last met in Moscow last September. “Full restoration and maintenance of peace and tranquillity in border areas is essential for development of our ties,” Jaishankar said in a tweet after the hour-long meeting.
Last week, Jaishankar had said that Beijing has not observed agreements on the border issue, which has “disturbed” the foundation of bilateral ties. “I would say, for the last 40 years, we had a very stable relation with China… China emerged as the second-largest trade partner…But for the last one year, there has been a lot of concern about the relationship because China has not observed agreements it had signed up for when it came to our border,” said Jaishankar, who is in Moscow on a three-day visit,” Jaishankar had said in response to a question on China-India relations at the Primakov Institute of World Economy & International Relations in Moscow.
Jaishankar is representing India at the SCO foreign ministers’ meeting. Apart from Jaishankar, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi are among the participants at the meeting.