India and China have a shared interest in maintaining a “stable” bilateral relationship, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Saturday, while stressing that the state of the border would largely determine the state of ties between the two countries, reported PTI.
Speaking at an event in Delhi, Jaishankar said India had gone through a particularly difficult phase with China between 2020 and 2024, primarily because of the situation along the border.
“I think we went through a particularly bad patch between the summer of 2020 and the autumn of 2024, and that was primarily an outcome of the situation in the border areas,” he said.
Jaishankar stressed that peace and tranquillity along the frontier were essential for stable bilateral relations.
“At the end of the day, peace and tranquillity in the border areas is a prerequisite for good relations, and the state of the border, to a very large measure, naturally would determine the state of the relations,” he said.
The minister said India would have to engage economically with the entire world, including China, while strengthening its own capabilities and standing firm on its interests.
“The world is competitive. We must build up our strengths. We have to do business with the entire world. That includes China too. But it is important we deal with them confidently and we stand our ground as we have stood in the border,” he said, reported PTI.
Jaishankar said both countries were large economies and were, in several ways, markets for each other as well as parts of global supply chains.
“At a political level, at a strategic level, both of us have an interest in maintaining a certain, I would say, stable relationship,” he said.
India-China ties came under severe strain following the deadly Galwan Valley clashes in 2020 and the subsequent military standoff in eastern Ladakh that continued for more than four years.
In October 2024, the two countries reached an agreement on disengagement at Depsang and Demchok, the last two major friction points in eastern Ladakh. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping subsequently met in Kazan and agreed on measures aimed at improving bilateral ties.
According to the report, Jaishankar also referred to the economic dimensions of the relationship, noting that China had industrialised earlier and on a much larger scale than India.
He said India had missed opportunities to deepen manufacturing and industrialisation over several decades and would now have to make up for those shortcomings.
“A stronger, a more ‘Atma-Nirbhar’ India, a more industrialised India, a stronger and a more manufacturing India will be able to actually compete with China as it will with other major countries of the world,” he said.
Jaishankar added that India had raised with China issues concerning businessmen facing visa-related difficulties.
On US-China relations, which are sometimes described as a potential “G2”, Jaishankar urged caution in viewing the relationship in such binary terms.
He described the US-China relationship as fundamentally competitive but said the two countries could also cooperate on certain issues and remain indifferent to each other in some sectors.
“It is not that they will compete on every issue in every geography in every time frame. So it’s a very complicated relationship as is natural,” he said.
For India, Jaishankar said, the guiding principle would remain national interest.
“It’s a relationship which we will monitor and assess from the manner in which it serves us best,” he said.
(With inputs from PTI)
