External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar Wednesday acknowledged that India and China will have issues in the “foreseeable future”, but said that there are ways to address them without conflict. His statement came a day after an Indian delegation discussed cross-border cooperation with a Chinese team during a border talks meeting. “We have basically made two points, which is that differences should not become disputes, and that competition should not become conflict. We do compete on many issues, but because we compete doesn't mean that there should be a conflict between us. We are very realistic about it,” Jaishankar said. He was speaking with Kyung-wha Kang, President of the Asia Society, at an event in New Delhi on Wednesday. “Between India and China, at least in the foreseeable future, there will be issues. But there are ways of addressing those issues. And what happened in 2020 was not the way to address those issues,” he said. The border standoff began in 2020 after a clash along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in which 20 Indian soldiers lost their lives. The freeze in ties affected several aspects — from trade and technology to air travel and people to people exchanges. In October 2024, India and China broke the four-year impasse and reached an agreement regarding patrolling along the friction points at the LAC. “We feel that from October… the relationship has seen some improvement… what we are trying, step by step, is to see if we can rebuild, undo some of the damage which happened as a result of the actions in 2020,” Jaishankar said. “What happened in 2020 was actually very traumatic for the relationship”. The minister, however, said there were no grey areas and it was a clear violation of the agreements. “It wasn't just the bloodshed, it was the disregard of written agreements, because this isn't a grey area we are talking about. I mean, the departure from the terms of what was agreed to was very sharp and very substantial,” he said. “If peace and tranquility in the border areas were disturbed, then, you know, the rest of the relationship can't go on as normal,” he said, adding that they are now trying, “step by step, to see if we can undo some of the damage which happened as a result of their actions in 2020, and we can rebuild the relationship. And we genuinely, sincerely think that this is in our mutual interest, that if one looks at 2020 to 2025, it was a period which did not serve them well, and it did not serve us well.” After the border talks in Beijing on Tuesday, the Ministry of External Affairs had said, “Held in a positive and constructive atmosphere, the meeting comprehensively reviewed the situation along the LAC in the India-China border areas.” At the 33rd meeting of the Working Mechanism for Consultation & Coordination on India-China Border Affairs (WMCC), the two sides exchanged views on early resumption of cross-border cooperation and exchanges, including on trans-border rivers and Kailash-Mansarovar Yatra. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also said last week that “trust, enthusiasm and energy” would return to the equation with China, and that the focus of the countries was to ensure differences do not turn into disputes. Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping met on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Russia last year – their first formal talks since 2020 — and agreed to boost communication and cooperation, and resolve conflicts to improve ties. On Wednesday, the visiting Indian delegation in Beijing, led by Gourangalal Das, Joint Secretary (East Asia) held a consultative meeting with Liu Jinsong, Director General of the Department of Asian Affairs of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “They agreed to continue efforts to further facilitate and promote people-to-people exchanges, including arrangements for resumption of direct flights, interaction of media and think-tanks, and celebration of the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations. The two sides have made further progress on the modalities to resume Kailash Manasarovar Yatra in 2025,” the MEA said Wednesday. They discussed resumption of dialogue mechanisms in a step-by-step manner to utilise them to address each other’s priority areas of interest and concern and move relations on to a more stable and predictable path, the statement added.
