China-India friendship unrealistic during border row: Indian foreign minister

Name: Indians burn effigies of Chinese President Xi Jinping over deadly border clash
Uploaded: 2020-12-09T12:48:47.000Z
Duration: 5 min 2 s
Description: Indians burn effigies of Chinese President Xi Jinping over deadly border clash

Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, India’s foreign minister, says relations are at their lowest point in 30 to 40 years

China ‘today gave us five different explanations’ for bringing ‘tens of thousands of troops to the Line of Actual Control’, according to Jaishankar

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Foreign ministers Subrahmanyam Jaishankar (left) and Wang Yi held talks to try to end their countries’ border dispute, without success. Photo: Xinhua

Liu Zhenin Beijing

Published: 8:48pm, 9 Dec 2020Updated: 10:56pm, 9 Dec 2020

The China-India relationship is in its worst state in decades and cannot be improved unless the neighbours settle their border dispute peacefully, the Indian foreign minister said on Wednesday.

Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, the external affairs minister, blamed the situation on China’s “major breach” of their agreements on military deployment on the disputed Himalayan border.

“We are today probably at the most difficult phase of our relationship with China, certainly in the last 30 to 40 years – you could argue even more,” Jaishankar said in an interview with Australian think tank the Lowy Institute.

“We are very clear that, you know, retaining and maintaining peace and stability, peace and tranquillity along the Line of Actual Control [LAC] is the basis for the rest of the relationship to progress.”

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Indians burn effigies of Chinese President Xi Jinping over deadly border clash

He said that in recent years the direction of ties had been broadly positive until they were significantly damaged in June by the two countries’ first deadly clash between troops on the LAC – their unofficial border in the Himalayas – since 1975.

On Tuesday, the State Post Bureau of China announced that a plan for the nations to issue joint commemorative stamps had been cancelled, without giving a reason.