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Will India and China bury the hatchet in 2024? External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Tuesday it all depends on “what is the Chinese policy” is. In an interview with news agency ANI, the minister emphasised the importance of “mutuality” between the two countries.
He said, “We have tried to construct a relationship which is based on three mutuals…Unless that mutuality is recognised, this relationship will find it difficult to progress.”
Jaishankar recalled the standoff between Indian and Chinese troops in Ladakh’s Galwan Valley and said, “Today, part of the problem is exactly because… that in 2020, agreements were disregarded and mutuality at which this relationship is predicated has not been followed…when you ask me where would it go, I would say a lot of it depend on what is the Chinese policy.”
“It takes two hands to clap…” Jaishankar said.
‘Legacy building’ on how to deal with China?
The external affairs minister also spoke about the “legacy building” and the foreign policy of Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Patel and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to deal with the issues posed by China.
“If you look at the last 75+ years of our foreign policy, we have had a strain of realism about China and we have had a strain of …idealism, “non-realism”. It begins from day one where there is a sharp difference of opinion on how to respond to China between Nehru and Sardar Patel…,” Jaishankar said.
“The Modi government has been very much more in conformity with the strain of realism which originated from Sardar Patel (in dealing with China)…,” he said.
Jaishankar argued “for dealing with China on the basis of realism” He said, “…that strain of realism that extends all the way from Sardar Patel to Narendra Modi…The alternative strain which starts from Nehru’s China first policy…it ends on ‘Chindiya policy’…”
On a question on whether India always lost to China at the mind games, Jaishankar said, “I don’t think we always lost out, but at various points of time, when we talk about the parts of the past today would be very difficult to understand, Panchsheel agreement is another such example.”
“The role of confidence and assurance, the fact that we are a multiple millennia civilisation. All of this should be in our demeanour, in our standing and in the way we approach other countries…,” the minister added.
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Published: 02 Jan 2024, 02:49 PM IST
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