Seeking the global community’s undivided attention and focus on China’s aggressive policy and other regional challenges that India is facing, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar came down heavily on Beijing, saying it has violated agreements not to bring its military forces to the border because of which India’s relationship with China is right now going through a very difficult phase. Addressing a gathering of leaders of powerful countries of the world during a panel discussion at the Munich Security Conference (MSC) 2022 on Saturday (local time), EAM Jaishankar emphatically said that the “state of the border would determine the state of the relationship” with China in what is being understood to be a clear-cut message to Beijing that it would have to mend its ways if it wants some sort of normalcy in ties with Delhi. The EAM categorically told the panel that “India is having a problem with China along the Line of Actual Control”.
Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) officials view this as a big diplomatic victory for India that the EAM raised China’s belligerence in a very emphatic way at an important global forum, that too, at a time when top diplomats of key western countries were focused only on the Ukraine crisis. A senior diplomat at MEA told The Daily Guardian that “Jaishankar had set the tone earlier during several bilateral meetings with his counterparts of various countries in Germany on Friday-Saturday when he successfully highlighted the problems from Pakistan, Afghanistan and China.” “He did not want the world focus to be only on Russia and Ukraine, so he used the opportunity of the MSC panel discussion to place on record what China is doing,” he added. This is how the EAM had managed to turn the world’s focus on China during the Quad Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Melbourne, Australia recently, where he discussed at length China’s misdeeds along Line of Actual Control (LAC). After the Quad meeting EAM Jaishankar had said that the situation at the LAC was discussed due to the disregard of written agreements by China in 2020 not to amass soldiers at the border and noted that Beijing’s actions have become an issue of “legitimate concern” for the entire international community. “When a large country disregards written commitments, I think it’s an issue of legitimate concern for the entire international community,” he had said in response to a question during a joint press conference with his Australian counterpart, Marise Payne in Melbourne.
Similarly, EAM Jaishankar used the opportunity at Munich to expose China’s agenda which is bothering every single nation in the Indo-Pacific and other parts of the world.
“For 45 years, there was peace, there was stable border management, and there were no military casualties on the border from 1975. That changed because we had agreements with China not to bring military forces to the border (the Line of Actual Control or LAC) and the Chinese violated those agreements,” the minister said in response to a question from moderator Lynn Kuok. “Now, the state of the border will determine the state of the relationship. That’s natural. So obviously, the relations with China right now are going through a very difficult phase,” he added.
EAM Jaishankar participated in the panel discussion on the Indo-Pacific at the MSC which is aimed at extensively deliberating on the escalating tension between the NATO countries and Russia over Ukraine. “But the External Affairs Minister shared his views on the problems being created by China, and sent out a message to the global community to pay attention to its activities on the LAC,” says an official.
The panel included Australian Foreign Minister Payne, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi, US Chairperson of the Senate Subcommittee on Europe and Regional Security Cooperation Jeanne Shaheen and Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Jean-Yves Le Drian.
When moderator Lynn Kuok asked how India is contributing to European security and compared the Ukraine crisis with the situation in the Indo-Pacific, Jaishankar said, “Well, I don’t think the situations in the Indo Pacific and the transatlantic are really analogous.”
He said, “Certainly, the assumption in your question that somehow there is a trade-off and one country does this in the Pacific so in return you do something else, I don’t think that’s the way international relations work.”
“We have quite distinct challenges, what is happening here or what is happening in the Indo-Pacific. In fact, if there was a connection by that logic, you would have had a lot of European powers already taking very sharp positions in the Indo-Pacific. We didn’t see that. We haven’t seen that since 2009,” Jaishankar said, amidst an aggressive China flexing its muscles in the region. He also highlighted how many countries are falling prey to China’s debt trap conspiracy: “Connectivity should be transparent and commercially based. It should not create debt and it should not violate the sovereignty and territorial integrity of countries, he said, amid international concern over China’s debt trap policy.
“I think in the last six years, the world has woken up to the concerns about connectivity. The fact that often connectivity initiatives have hidden agendas or not so hidden agendas, that there’s dual purpose connectivity,” he said.
“If connectivity initiatives are based on similar outlooks… it’s natural that you would congregate, that you would synergise, that you would see how it works for each other. So, we would certainly encourage, you know, countries whose connectivity principles and policies are similar,” he added.
In fact, Jaishankar was referring to instances like China’s takeover of Sri Lanka’s Hambantota port on 99 years’ lease for US$1.2 billion debt swap. This was part of Beijing’s agenda to acquire strategic assets far away from home by providing heavy loans and investment to smaller nations.
India has already protested to China over the US$60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor connecting China’s Xinjiang with Pakistan’s Gwadar Port as it is being laid through Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK). Jaishankar was drawing the leaders’ attention to this also.
On Quad, Jaishankar dismissed the notion that the four-member grouping is an Asian NATO as a “completely misleading term” and said “there are interested parties who advance that kind of analogies”.
He described Quad as a grouping of “four countries who have common interest, common values, a great deal of comfort, who happen to be located in the four corners of the Indo-Pacific”.
“It’s not post-2020 development. Our relations with the Quad partners—the US, Japan and Australia—have steadily improved in the last 20 years. The Quad has a value in itself. These are four countries who recognise today that the world would be a better place if they cooperated. And that’s essentially what’s happening,” Jaishankar added.