By Kaveesha Fernando
NEW DELHI, India (CWBN)_ Indian minister of External Affairs S. Jaishankar said this weekend that he felt that the real danger of this year’s India-China dispute is that the goodwill which was so carefully developed by both sides will dissipate.
Speaking at the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry’s Annual General Meeting, the minister also said that the border skirmishes along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) between India and China have been very disturbing.
At a memorial lecture later in the weekend, the minister spoke of the evolution of India’s foreign policy in 2014 called “Neighbourhood First”. He explained that “the new approach envisaged a generous and non-reciprocal engagement of neighbours that was centred around connectivity, contacts and cooperation. The enhanced importance of India to the daily life of its neighbourhood will clearly build stronger regionalism. But it was also one that is clearly predicated on mutual sensitivity and mutual respect for each other’s interests”.
This isn’t the first time the minister expressed his concerns. He stated last week at an online session conducted by a foreign think tank that China has given India five differing explanations for its recent increase in militarisation at the LAC. The minister said that India-China relations had reached the most difficult phase it has seen in the last three or four decades.
This year, the tension between regional giants India and China has boiled over, leading to disputes on various frontiers between the two and even spilling over into other countries in the region. Apart from the LAC dispute, India has also banned hundreds of Chinese apps (several of which belong to the Alibaba Group) and demanded that various popular international social media platforms and websites take down maps which show Indian territory as part of China.
