India, China "Going Through Bad Patch": Foreign Minister S Jaishankar
NDTV
"I don't think the Chinese have any doubt on where we stand on our relationship and what's not gone right with it," Foreign Minister S Jaishankar said
Foreign Minister S Jaishankar today said India and China are going through a "particularly bad patch" in their ties because Beijing has taken a set of actions in violation of agreements for which it still does not have a "credible explanation". He said it is for the Chinese leadership to answer where they want to take the bilateral relationship.
"I don't think the Chinese have any doubt on where we stand on our relationship and what's not gone right with it. I've been meeting my counterpart Wang Yi a number of times. As you would have experienced, I speak fairly clear, reasonably understandably there is no lack of clarity so if they want to hear it I am sure they would have heard it," Mr Jaishankar said in response to a question at a panel "Greater Power Competition: The Emerging World Order" at the Bloomberg New Economic Forum in Singapore.
"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," Mr Jaishankar said, in an apparent reference to the eastern Ladakh border clash with China.
The eastern Ladakh border standoff between the Indian and Chinese militaries erupted in May last year following a violent clash in Pangong lake areas. Both sides gradually enhanced their deployment by rushing in tens of thousands of soldiers as well as heavy weaponry.
