EAM S Jaishankar attributes successful agreement with China to military’s work and skilled diplomacy
S Jaishankar, the Minister of External Affairs, attributed the successful agreement with China on patrolling along the Line of Actual Control to the military’s work in extremely challenging conditions and skilled diplomacy.
In Pune, Jaishankar stated that it is too soon for relations to normalize and that rebuilding trust and cooperation will take time.
He stated that during the BRICS summit in Kazan, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping of China decided that the foreign ministers and National Security Advisors of both countries would convene to discuss future plans.
“If today we have reached where we have…One is because of the very determined effort on our part to stand our ground and make our point. The military was there (at LAC) in very very unimaginable conditions to defend the country, and the military did its part and diplomacy did its part,” Jaishankar said.
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India’s infrastructure saw improvement over the span of ten years. He mentioned that a portion of the issue stemmed from the lack of attention given to border infrastructure in previous years.
“Today we have put in five times more resources annually than there used to be a decade ago which is showing results and enabling the military to actually be effectively deployed. The combination of these (factors) has led to where it is,” he said.
Earlier this week, India announced a breakthrough in ending the military standoff with China, stating that they reached an agreement on patrolling along the LAC in eastern Ladakh after over four years.
India’s border infrastructure has been significantly improved over the decade, he said
Since the year 2020, the border situation has been greatly disrupted, leading to a predictable adverse effect on the overall relationship. He mentioned that from September 2020 onwards, India had been in discussions with China to find a resolution.
The EAM mentioned there were diverse facets of this solution.
The top priority is disengagement due to the extremely close proximity of the troops and the potential for an incident to occur. He further stated that de-escalation was taking place due to increased military presence on both sides.
