Khushi Doshi
Published On: February 20, 2022 at 14:50 IST
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Saturday that India’s relations with China were in a “Very difficult phase” after Beijing violated border agreements, emphasising that the “State of the border will determine the state of the relationship.”
Holding Beijing responsible for the current situation along the Line of Actual Control, in response to a question after a bilateral meeting with Payne a day after the Quadrilateral meeting in Melbourne.
In response to a question, Jaishankar stated during a panel discussion at the Munich Security Conference 2022 in Munich, Germany, that India has a problem with China, “And the problem is that for 45 years there was peace, stable border management, and no military casualties on the border from 1975.”
Agreements with China were made not to bring military forces to the Line of Actual Control, and the Chinese violated those agreements, the External Affairs Minister said, adding that India’s relations with the West were quite good even before June 2020.
The eastern Ladakh border standoff erupted after a violent clash in the Pangong lake areas, and both sides gradually increased their deployment by rushing in tens of thousands of soldiers as well as heavy weaponry. On June 15, 2020, a deadly clash in the Galwan Valley heightened tensions.