External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has said stability along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) is essential for normalising India-China relations, warning that any disturbance along the border would have consequences for bilateral ties.
According to a report by PTI, Jaishankar also linked the expansion of trade and investment between the two countries to the maintenance of peace and tranquillity in border areas.
"The point we make to the Chinese is: 'If you want a normal relationship, if the rest of the relationship is to move, it's common sense -- It is a no-brainer that the boundary has to be stable and that we need peace and tranquillity in the border areas'," he said.
Speaking at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum on Tuesday evening, Jaishankar said the situation along the LAC had "settled down" to a great extent since 2024, adding that bilateral relations were "commensurately moving towards normalcy," PTI reported.
India and China have introduced a series of confidence-building measures in recent months to repair ties strained by the more than four-and-a-half-year military standoff in eastern Ladakh. The face-off ended in late 2024.
Asked whether India would allow greater Chinese investment in the country in the event of an "early harvest" agreement on the boundary question, Jaishankar said the two sides were examining various possibilities.
"We are now looking at those possibilities, and we have to see where we go. But we are not insisting that you have to solve the boundary issue in order to do business."
"What we are saying is: the bar is lower. The bar is: maintain peace and tranquillity. I wouldn't link the early harvest to anything other than the boundary question resolution. Anything we do on any policy we have on business, market access issues will be dealt with separately."
Jaishankar also flagged concerns over the economic relationship, particularly the trade imbalance and limited market access for Indian businesses in China.
"We also have very major economic issues with China. If you look today at the trade balance, it is completely tilted (towards China)," he said.
"The tilt is extremely one-sided, and in many sectors where we have done well with the rest of the world, we have not had market access; we have not had a successful business operation for that sector in China," he said.
"We do believe today that we're not getting a level playing field in China in the manner in which we have given a level playing field to them," he noted.
Referring to the 2020 Galwan Valley clashes, Jaishankar said the confrontation marked a significant break from the relative peace that had prevailed along the border for decades.
"From 1975 till 2020, a good 45 years, no blood was shed on that border. The last time there were fatalities was in 1975. In this period, India-China relations did grow," he said, reported PTI.
"Then in 2020, when we were in the midst of the Covid lockdown, we had a series of border issues, and it culminated in a clash in which a number of soldiers were killed on either side," he said.
"For us, what it represented was a very profound departure from the situation that was prevailing since 1975. If the peace and tranquillity in the border areas are disturbed, then the relationship will have consequences," he said.
Jaishankar said the consequences were evident in the subsequent years, until peace and tranquillity were restored along the border.
(With inputs from PTI)
