External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar today said there has been “some progress” with China on the border issue. The minister said about 75 per cent of the “disengagement” problems have been resolved.
Mr Jaishankar, who is in Geneva, Switzerland for bilateral meetings, said this at the Global Centre for Security Policy.
Relations between India and China are at an all-time low as troops from both countries have remained in their respective positions since the standoff began in Ladakh in May 2020. The process of withdrawal of troops began in February 2021 and has been going on since then.
Mr Jaishankar said that about 75% of the disengagement issues with China have been resolved. Mr Jaishankar is scheduled to meet Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his visit to Switzerland.
Talks between India and China are continuing at both diplomatic and military levels.
A partial withdrawal from Galwan, Hot Springs and Gogra took place in July 2020, while a full withdrawal from the north and south banks of Pangong Lake happened in February 2021. However, Chinese troops remain firmly entrenched in the Depsang plains in northeastern Ladakh and are showing no signs of moving forward.
The Line of Actual Control or LAC between India and China, which also includes Chinese-occupied Tibet, is about 3,500 kilometres long.
India-China Relations
Relations between India and China are at an all-time low after the military clashes in Ladakh and the subsequent standoff. Economic relations between the two countries have been imbalanced for the past few decades.
Speaking about trade ties, Mr Jaishankar said economic relations with China have been “very unfair” and “unbalanced”. But he added that India has not closed its doors to trade with China.
Two days ago, during his visit to Germany, Mr Jaishankar had said India had “not closed the doors to trade with China”, but the issue is in which sectors India trades with Beijing and on what terms.
Jaishankar had said, “We have not stopped trading with China…I think the issue is what areas do you trade in and on what terms do you trade? This is much more complex than a black and white binary answer.”
Since the Ladakh standoff, India has tightened its scrutiny on investments by Chinese companies and halted all major projects, including infrastructure. But as progress is being made towards the withdrawal of troops along the LAC with China, government officials, including Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, have supported suggestions to allow more Chinese investments in the country.
Along with investment scrutiny, India has also virtually banned visas for all Chinese nationals since 2020 but is now considering easing it for Chinese technicians as it has blocked billions of dollars of investment.
Passenger flights between India and China had also been halted since the Ladakh standoff, but with the slow disengagement progressing, discussions are now being held on resuming flights.
Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu today said the two countries have discussed the early resumption of direct flights between India and China.
According to a Reuters report, China has been pressuring India to resume direct passenger flights since June but New Delhi is opposing it as the withdrawal of troops in Ladakh is not complete.