Benaulim: External Affairs Minister (EAM) Dr. S Jaishankar today, May 4, held a bilateral discussion with visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang with the border controversy along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh believed to be in the limelight.
The discussions took place outside of a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization's (SCO) Council of Foreign Ministers in a beach resort in Benaulim. People with knowledge of the situation predicted in advance of the meeting that the three-year border dispute in eastern Ladakh would be a key topic of discussion.
Their second meeting in the previous two months was with the Jaishankar-Gang. In March, the Chinese foreign minister visited India to take part in a G20 summit.
Jaishankar spoke with Qin outside of the meeting, telling his Chinese colleague that the ongoing border dispute in eastern Ladakh is the reason for the "abnormal" state of India-China relations.
At a meeting last week, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh informed his Chinese counterpart Li Shangfu that China's breach of the existing border agreements had "eroded" the entire foundation of relations between the two nations and that all border-related disputes must be settled in accordance with the agreements already in place.
On April 27, a gathering of SCO defence ministers took place concurrently with the summit in New Delhi.
Following the fierce clash in the Galwan Valley in June 2020, which was the most significant military conflict between the two countries in decades, relations between India and China significantly deteriorated. The LAC in eastern Ladakh has been a source of tension between Indian and Chinese forces for the past three years, despite the fact that they have disengaged in various locations as a result of numerous military and diplomatic discussions.
India has insisted that the two nations' relationship should be built on the "three mutuals" of respect, sensitivity, and shared interests. Following a bloody altercation near Pangong Lake on May 5, 2020, the eastern Ladakh border standoff broke out.
The two parties concluded the disengagement process in 2021 on the north and south banks of the Pangong lake as well as in the Gogra region as a result of numerous military and diplomatic discussions.
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