Jaishankar says India, China going through 'bad patch,' Beijing lacks credible explanation for LAC actions
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Both India and China have been involved in a standoff at the Line of Actual Control (LAC), following a clash in the Galwan valley
External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar has said that India and China are going through a ''bad patch.''
Highlighting that China lacks a ''credible explanation'' for violating its bilateral agreements with India, Jaishankar said ''I don't think the Chinese have any doubt on where we stand on our relationship and what's not gone right with it.''
Both India and China have been involved in a standoff at the Line of Actual Control (LAC), following a clash in the Galwan valley.
They have held several military disengagement talks but none has yielded any fruitful result.
Speaking at the panel discussion on "Greater Power Competition: The Emerging World Order" at the Bloomberg New Economic Forum in Singapore, Jaishankar said, ''I've been meeting my counterpart Wang Yi a number of times. As you would've experienced, I speak fairly clear, reasonably understandably (and) there is no lack of clarity so if they want to hear it, I am sure they would have heard it.''
According to him, ''We are going through a particularly bad patch in our relationship because they have taken a set of actions in violation of agreements for which they still don't have a credible explanation and that indicates some rethink about where they want to take our relationship, but that's for them to answer.''
In a strong statement after the 13th round of talks, the Indian Army had said the "constructive suggestions" made by it at the negotiations were neither agreeable to the Chinese side nor could Beijing provide any "forward-looking" proposals.
The 17-month standoff in eastern Ladakh is in a stalemate. Amid the impasse, both sides are gradually enhancing their deployment by rushing in tens of thousands of soldiers as well as heavy weaponry.
(With inputs from agencies)