Amid border issue, China shouldn't expect other aspects to move ahead normally: EAM Jaishankar
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Saturday. Diplomacy continues and sometimes solutions to difficult situations do not come in haste, he said while speaking on 'Bharat's Rise in Geopolitics' at an event here, during which he took questions from the audience.
He said the borders between India and China are not mutually agreed and it was decided that both sides would not amass troops and would keep the other informed about their movements, but the neighbouring nation violated this agreement in 2020.
It brought its troops in large numbers to the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and the Galwan incident happened, Jaishankar said.
The EAM said he had explained to his Chinese counterpart that «unless a solution is found at the border, they should not expect other relations to move on normally».
«That is impossible.
You don't want to fight and do trade at the same time. Meanwhile, diplomacy is going on and sometimes solutions to difficult situations do not come in haste,» he asserted.
Queried on the recent rift with Maldives (after objectionable comments by some officials of that nation following Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Lakshwadeep), Jaishankar said, «What we are trying to do, and with a lot of success in the last 10 years, is to build a very strong connect.»
«Politics may go up and down but the people of that nation generally have good feelings towards India and understand the importance of having good relations,» he said, adding that India was involved in building roads, power transmission lines, supply of fuel, providing trade access, investing and having people spend holidays in other countries.
These are parts of how a relationship is developed, though sometimes things do not go the right way
