External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has said India-China relations are moving towards normalcy as the situation along the border has settled to a great extent since 2024. He made the remarks in a conversation with Bloomberg News Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in New Delhi on Tuesday.
Jaishankar said India had made it clear to China that a stable boundary was the precondition for a normal relationship. "If you want a normal relationship, the boundary has to be stable. We need peace and tranquillity in the border areas," he said, adding that as the border areas settled down after 2024, the relationship was "commensurately moving towards normalcy".
Four years of negotiations
The minister recalled that the standoff had marked a major break from the status quo that had held since 1975, and that the tension persisted for about five years. Restoring peace and tranquillity took more than four years of negotiations, involving discussions between Jaishankar and his Chinese counterpart as well as meetings between military commanders. The final issues were resolved at a multilateral summit in October 2024 attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
"If peace and tranquillity in the border areas is disturbed, then the relationship will have consequences," Jaishankar said.
Trade imbalance a separate conversation
Jaishankar also flagged what he called major economic issues in the relationship, pointing to a trade balance that he described as extremely one-sided and to the difficulties Indian businesses face in getting market access in China. On whether India would allow greater Chinese investment under an early-harvest arrangement, he said discussions were active but that investment and market-access policies would be dealt with separately from the boundary question.
The remarks come days after the Ministry of External Affairs rejected China's objection to India formally naming 28 strategic locations in Ladakh on the Survey of India map, reiterating that the Union Territory is an "integral and inalienable part" of India.
Sources:
The Economic Times
The Tribune
The Times of India
Jaishankar said India had made it clear to China that a stable boundary was the precondition for a normal relationship. "If you want a normal relationship, the boundary has to be stable. We need peace and tranquillity in the border areas," he said, adding that as the border areas settled down after 2024, the relationship was "commensurately moving towards normalcy".
Four years of negotiations
The minister recalled that the standoff had marked a major break from the status quo that had held since 1975, and that the tension persisted for about five years. Restoring peace and tranquillity took more than four years of negotiations, involving discussions between Jaishankar and his Chinese counterpart as well as meetings between military commanders. The final issues were resolved at a multilateral summit in October 2024 attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
"If peace and tranquillity in the border areas is disturbed, then the relationship will have consequences," Jaishankar said.
Trade imbalance a separate conversation
Jaishankar also flagged what he called major economic issues in the relationship, pointing to a trade balance that he described as extremely one-sided and to the difficulties Indian businesses face in getting market access in China. On whether India would allow greater Chinese investment under an early-harvest arrangement, he said discussions were active but that investment and market-access policies would be dealt with separately from the boundary question.
The remarks come days after the Ministry of External Affairs rejected China's objection to India formally naming 28 strategic locations in Ladakh on the Survey of India map, reiterating that the Union Territory is an "integral and inalienable part" of India.
Sources:
The Economic Times
The Tribune
The Times of India
