India, China going through a particularly bad patch in ties: S Jaishankar

Speaking at a panel discussion on the theme ‘Greater power competition: The emerging world order’ at the Bloomberg New Economic Forum in Singapore, Jaishankar also said that India’s interests would be “definitely served with a much closer relationship with the United States”.

In reference to the border conflict with China in Eastern Ladakh on the LAC, Jaishankar said that he has spoken to his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi a number of times "clearly", and there is “no lack of clarity” on what India has conveyed to the Chinese side.

“I don’t think the Chinese have any doubt on where we stand on our relationship, and what’s not gone right with it. I’ve been meeting my counterpart Wang Yi a number of times… I speak fairly clearly, reasonably understandably, there is no lack of clarity," he said.

“So if they want to hear it I am sure they would have heard it; but the issue where is India positioned, yes, some of it is about China, because they are our neighbour, and we are going through a particularly bad patch in our relationship, because they’ve taken a set of actions in violation of agreements, for which they still don’t have a credible explanation; and that appears to indicate some rethink about where they want to take our relationship, but that’s for them to answer,” he said.

“Today issues of trust and transparency are much more relevant in a data driven world, so it does matter to me what the character of my partner is, who I am partner with.

“These are all new factors which I would suggest is really taking the world in a very, very different direction, and obviously India would like to sort of stay on top of its game, and see how its interests are best served and, those interests today are definitely served with a much closer relationship with the United States, with a much stronger relationship with Europe and the UK, and with a re-energizing of our relationship with the Asean, especially Singapore, so all of that is happening,” he said.

His comments come as India and China held the 23rd meeting of the Working Mechanism for Consultation & Coordination on India-China Border Affairs (WMCC) on Thursday and agreed on the need to find an early resolution to the remaining issues along the LAC in Eastern Ladakh and to hold the next round – 14th round - of the Senior Commanders meeting at an early date.

External Affairs Minister Jaishankar and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi during their meeting in September in Dushanbe on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation agreed that military and diplomatic officials of the two sides should continue their discussions to resolve the remaining issues along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Eastern Ladakh.

The standoff between the Indian and Chinese armies in eastern Ladakh erupted on May 5 last year following a violent clash in the Pangong Lake area.