Asserting that he has had a “very frank” discussion with his Chinese counterpart Qin Gang, External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar on May 5 made it clear the ties between the two countries are not normal and both sides ought to take the “disengagement process further”.
“I have made it very clear publicly as well….and what I say within a room is no difference to what I say outside which is that India-China relations are not normal and cannot be normal if peace and tranquility in the border areas is disturbed,” Dr S Jaishankar told a news conference after the SCO Foreign Ministers’ Meeting at Benaulim, Goa.
“I have been very, very clear about it. I have been consistent about it,” he said, adding, “…and I have not changed my position at this meeting either”.
At the news conference on the ‘China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)’, he said, “I was made very clear not once but twice at the SCO meeting that connectivity is good for progress, but connectivity cannot violate the territorial integrity and sovereignty of States”.
“So this is our long-standing position….Nobody should have any doubt about it. And I assure you that those who were in the room today have no doubt about it. I made sure of that”, he asserted.
India has long opposed the CPEC since it passes through Pakistan-Occupied-Kashmir (PoK).
Paradoxically Pakistan Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, in his speech at SCO meet, described CPEC as a force multiplier for regional connectivity.
“No handshakes”:
As the Foreign Ministers arrived at the venue on May 5 morning, Dr S Jaishankar greeted all of them with a ‘Namaste’, thus any possibility of a handshake with Bilawal Bhutto Zardari in the full media glare too was technically avoided.
Last week in New Delhi at the SCO Defence Ministers’ meeting, Rajnath Singh also skipped a handshake with the Chinese Defence Minister though he did have a handshake with Tajik, Iran and Kazakh counterparts.
In his opening remarks at the SCO Ministers meeting, Dr S Jaishankar said, “While the world was engaged in facing covid and its consequences, the menace of terrorism continues unabated. Taking our eyes off this menace would be detrimental to our security interests”.
He further stated, “We firmly believe that there can be no justification for terrorism, and it must be stopped in all its forms and manifestations, including cross-border terrorism”.
The “channel of finances” for terror activities must be seized and blocked without distinction, he said. Members need not be reminded that combating terrorism is “one of the original mandates of the SCO”, the External Affairs Minister said.
Dr S Jaishankar also tweeted: “We must not allow anybody – individual or state – to hide behind non-state actors.”
Dr S Jaishankar also noted India’s priorities for SCO, as contained in the acronym “SECURE”, which stands for security, economic development, connectivity, unity, respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity and environmental protection.
With SCO in its third decade, the Minister highlighted the need for reform and modernisation of the grouping to keep it relevant in a rapidly changing world. He also spoke on the progress made for the admission of Iran and Belarus as full members of SCO and for recognising India’s long-standing demand to make English the third official language of the grouping.
China had earlier, in a statement, said that the current situation on the China-India border is generally ‘stable’, in an apparent reference to the ongoing military standoff in Eastern Ladakh.
However, at the media conference on May 5, External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar said, “I don’t think that’s the issue. The issue is there is an abnormal position in the border areas, and we had very frank discussions on this.”
Thus he was emphatic, “We have to take the disengagement process further.”
Last week at the Defence Ministers conference for SCO countries, India’s Defence Minister Rajnath Singh told his Chinese counterpart, Gen Li Shangfu, that there is an urgent need for a resolution of border tensions as Chinese violation of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) has eroded the base of bilateral relations.
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