Saturday , November 23 2024

Raisina Dialogue: 'It is not easy to balance relations with China', said Jaishankar


New Delhi: China was once again the target of Foreign Minister S Jaishankar. Raisina Dialogue was a platform for diplomatic discussions. Speaking at a session of the program on Friday, he said China was playing 'mind games' on bilateral relations with India, while India had other options to strike a balance. The Foreign Minister admitted very clearly that striking a balance in bilateral relations is going to prove challenging for both the countries and it will not be easy. A day earlier, from the same platform, the Foreign Minister had criticized China for creating obstacles in the way of reform in the United Nations Security Council.

The External Affairs Minister was asked whether it would be possible to balance the strained relations between India and China? Jaishankar responded to this in several stages. First of all he said that there has been an agreement between the two countries regarding the border dispute since the ninth decade of the last century. Now one party (China) is moving away from that consensus. We are watching their behavior on the border. Jaishankar also said that there will be a mind game between the two countries. He made it clear that this mind game should not happen at all. The Foreign Minister says that the rest of the 190 countries of the world have no importance in the relations between India and China, it has its own importance. He further said in the context of China that if there are some facts in other parts of the world, doing which helps me in creating balance, then why not use it.

His reply has come when military talks to resolve the border dispute between India and China were concluded two days ago and there is no sign of any result. The border dispute is going on between the two countries since May 2020. The armies of both the countries are still deployed at some distance on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) bordering India's eastern Ladakh. Jaishankar cited a Goldman Sachs report on how India and China will become $50 billion-plus economies by 2075. He said that when India and China move in the same direction, it will not be easy to create a balance.

Nor cited the Sachs report on how India and China will become $50 billion-plus economies by 2075. He said that when India and China move in the same direction, it will not be easy to create a balance.