(TibetanReview.net, Jul30’24) – India’s External affairs minister S Jaishankar has said Jul 29 that relations with China continued to be problematic and that he had held two meetings with his counterpart Wang Yi this month alone in efforts to resolve the eastern Ladakh border standoff which remains the main cause of it. India has also, on Jul 30, rejected suggestion that foreign direct investment (FDI) from China be allowed as a measure for reducing the county’s trade deficit and attracting technical expertise.
Accepting the fact that India and China have some issue and the relationship is not normal, timesofindia.com Jul 29 quoted Jaishankar as saying in Tokyo. “We have problem, I would say an issue between India and China. But I think it is for the two of us to talk it over and to find a way.”
The “issue” refers to the continuing military standoff since 2020 on the two sides of the eastern Ladakh border as a result of China’s incursion and steadfast refusal to vacate it.
He has rejected the idea of any third-party involvement in resolving the issue as he attended the QUAD group meeting of the USA, Australia, Japan and India in Tokyo.
“Obviously other countries in the world would have an interest in the matter, because we are two big countries and the state of our relationship has an impact on the rest of the world. But we are not looking to other countries to sort out what is really an issue between us,” he has added while responding to a question on QUAD members’ reaction on India-China issue.
Jaishankar and Wang met last week during the ASEAN meeting in the Laotian capital Vientiane where they agreed on the need to give strong guidance to complete the disengagement process following the military standoff in eastern Ladakh in May 2020. And on Jul 4 also, they met in the Kazakh capital Astana on the sidelines of the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).
“We have views on China based on our experience. Our relations with China are not doing very well, the main reason for that is in 2020, during the COVID, China brought very large forces to the border areas between India and China in violation of agreements that we had with China and that created tensions which led to a clash, people died on both sides,” Jaishankar has said in Tokyo.
“The consequences of that issue, which has not been fully resolved, continues. The relationship right now with China is not good, not normal. As a neighbour, we hope for a better relationship, but that can only happen if they respect the LAC and respect agreements which they have signed in the past…”he has added.
Jaishankar has also made it clear that India’s stand that normalizing bilateral ties with China depends on China restoring the pre-2020 Ladakh border status quo remains unchanged.
Meanwhile, India’s Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has rejected any rethinking on allowing Chinese direct investments in the country as pitched for in the government’s Economic Survey 2024 report.
“There is no rethinking at present to support Chinese investments in the country,” businesstoday.in Jul 30 quoted Goyal as saying, adding that the report always speaks about new ideas and gives out their own thinking.
The Economic Survey is not at all binding on the government and there is no thinking on supporting Chinese investments in the country, he has told reporters.
The Survey 2024, authored by Chief Economic Adviser V Anantha Nageswaran and co, outlined two paths for India to become a global manufacturing hub – increasing imports or attracting more foreign direct investment (FDI) from China. Keeping in mind India’s substantial trade deficit with China, Nageswaran deemed the second more beneficial. Encouraging Chinese investments would help reduce this deficit and foster domestic technical expertise, the report said.