India-China ties: Huge premium in reaching an understanding, says Jaishankar

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Saturday said India and China have "huge premium" in reaching "understanding" and given the size of both countries, "the world has a lot riding on". 

Speaking at a virtual event called 'India at 75 summit' organised by industry body CII, Jaishankar said,"we are neighbours, at least as the modern state we are neighbours...What it does is, its a huge premium in reaching some kind of equilibrium or understanding between the two, not just in my interest but in their interest too and how to do that is one of the big challenges we face and someone at their  end will be saying something."

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''The world has a lot riding on us, giving our size and impact.. there are problems, problems are laid out and very central to our foreign policy calculations," he added.

India-China ties suffered a blow after the Galwan incident in eastern Ladakh of June 15 when forces from both sides were involved in a violent clash. India lost 20 of its soldiers, while China accepted it suffered casualties never came out with a number.

Drawing parallels between India and China, EAM explained,  "We are a neighbour of China, China is already the second largest economy of the world and we will one day be the third largest economy. We are demographically unique countries--in the billion-plus category. We happen to be neighbours, the period of our difficulties was similar... the period of our re-emergence in international politics is also not that far apart. We are seeing a parallel but the differential rise of two countries."

On current global dynamics, Jaishankar called for "issue-based" criteria for partnership given "nature of the world is of overlapping interest".