Relations not normal, cannot be normal if...: Jaishankar on India

By Geeta Mohan: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar reiterated that relations with China are not normal and will continue to remain so if peace and tranquillity in border areas are disturbed.

His comments at a press conference came a day after his talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang.

Relations between China and India have been tense ever since the eastern Ladakh military standoff between the two countries in May 2020, though they disengaged in several places following a series of military and diplomatic talks.

On Friday, Jaishankar said both nations have to take the disengagement process forward.

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"They [China] used the word stable.There is abnormal position in border areas. We had a frank discussion about it," the foreign minister said while addressing the press after the conclusion of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meeting in Goa.

The ties between India and China nosedived significantly following the fierce clash in the Galwan Valley in June 2020 that marked the most serious military conflict between the two sides in decades.

As a result of a series of military and diplomatic talks, the two sides completed the disengagement process in 2021 on the north and south banks of the Pangong lake and in the Gogra area.

On the China Pakistan Economic Corridor, that passes through Pakistan-Occupied-Kashmir, Jaishankar said connectivity is good for progress, but it can't violate territorial integrity and sovereignty of states.

Jaishankar and Qin held bilateral talks on Thursday on the sidelines of a meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).

During the talks, Jaishankar conveyed to his Chinese counterpart that the state of India-China relations is "abnormal" because of the lingering border row in eastern Ladakh.