Jaishankar says ties with China cannot be normal if Beijing continues trying to change LAC

NEW DELHI, DEC 7: India’s relations with China cannot be normal as long as Beijing tries to unilaterally change LAC and continues to build up forces along the border, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Wednesday.

Replying to queries by MPs after his suo motu statement on foreign policy in Rajya Sabha, the minister said India has made it clear to China that it will not tolerate any unilateral change in the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

“Diplomatically, we have been very clear. We have been very clear with the Chinese that we will not tolerate any unilaterally change to the Line of Actual Control. And that so long as they continue to seek to do that, and if they have built up forces, which in our minds constitute a serious concern in the border areas, then our relationship is not normal,” he said.

China is reported to have built up military infrastructure along the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh.

Earlier this year, a top US general had described the Chinese activity along the LAC as eye-opening.

“And the abnormality of that (relations) has been in evidence in the last few years,” Jaishankar said on Wednesday.

He said the military commanders of the two countries continue to engage each other.

“I think given the sensitivity of that matter, it is something which is left to the military commanders to deal with,” he said.

He went on to add that the House should be understanding of the national sensitivity of such a delicate matter.

Last month, the minister stated that the current standoff on the LAC has been “mischievously conflated” with resolving the boundary question.

Relations between the two countries can only become sustainable on the basis of mutual respect, mutual sensitivity and mutual interest, he had said.

The Indian Army and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) have been locked in a standoff in multiple areas along the LAC in eastern Ladakh since May 2020.

-PTI