'India Engaging China Through Diplomatic, Military Channels': Jaishankar on Border Standoff in Ladakh

Amid the ongoing Sino-India border dispute, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Saturday said the government was engaging China through diplomatic and military channels. To assure peace and tranquility on the border, Jaishankar said both countries need to adhere to a series of agreements signed in over the last two decades.

Speaking to Hindustan Times on his forthcoming book named The India Way: Strategies for an Uncertain World, the Union Minister said that in the book, he has presented the rise of a potential global power that India needed to wake up to the implications of it. Written over a period of two years, Jaishankar said his book answered how the Chinese had risen to power and where India currently stands. He has also explained how repositioning of the United States had consequences for the entire world, including India and China.

The last time a global power came to rise was when the Soviet Union rose to power during World War, however, it was masked by the conflict. Now, he said, it was just not about the rise of a potential global power, but also the repositioning of another global power which was fulcrum of world order.

Talking about the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic on foreign affairs, Jaishankar said that major shifts will take place during the aftermath of the novel coronavirus. In the last few years, India had contributed to major crisis across the globe including the Nepal earthquake, the civil war in Yemen and the recent Beirut explosion. India also provided medical supplies to 150 countries around the world to help them in fight against the Covid-19 pandemic, he added.

When asked about Pakistan denying in-house terrorism targeting India, the minister said that no country used cross-border terrorism in an open way and the situation with Islamabad was very unique. We must have the self-confidence to tell the neighbour that it cannot be the basis for conduct of relations, he said.

Talking about China’s take on US using India as a frontline state amid the ongoing stand-off in Ladakh, Jaishankar said that India possesses a character and interests of its own and it cannot be defined negatively as being against somebody. Those presuming that are reflecting their own history and self-worth, he said.