Playing down differences with China and the military stand-off between Indian and Chinese troops at Doklam, Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar said the situation there had occurred before and could be “handled.”
“It is not the first time that it has happened,” he said, responding to questions about the situation in the tri-junction area, after delivering a lecture at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore. “How do you handle it is a test of our maturity. I see no reason, having handled so many situations in the past, that we will not handle this,” he added.
Mr. S. Jaishankar said while India and China had several differences, PM Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping had “reached a consensus” on two points during their meeting on June 8 in Astana, namely, “At a time of global uncertainty, India-China relations are a factor of stability; and in their relationship, India and China must not allow differences to become disputes.”
However, he did not refer to the next meeting between the two leaders in Hamburg at the G-20 summit, which China said was not a “bilateral”, though the MEA has said the leaders had covered a “wide range of issues” during the meeting.
Despite the two leaders meeting each other twice since trouble began when Chinese PLA teams reportedly demolished Indian bunkers in the Doklam plateau (called Doko La in Bhutan, which claims the whole), and then sent in road construction teams, the stand-off has now entered its second month.
Since then, Bhutan and India have jointly countered China’s claims that it was only operating in its territory, and according to officials, Indian and Chinese soldiers now stand face-to-face on the contested plateau, pitching tents there in an indication they could be there for the “long haul” .
The Foreign Secretary’s remarks indicate diplomatic channels are at work between New Delhi and Beijing to resolve the crisis, although in uncharacteristically sharp rhetoric, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has repeatedly held that no “meaningful dialogue” could take place until “the complete withdrawal of Indian troops” from the area. India has said China’s attempt to build the road through contested Bhutanese territory is “changing the status quo” agreed to while boundary talks continue.
“It is a long border; as you know, no part of the border has been agreed upon on the ground,” Dr. Jaishankar said adding that, “It is likely that, from time to time, there are differences,” along the 3,500 kilometre boundary.
‘Symptoms of stress’
Speaking to The Hindu , however, Mr. Jaishankar’s predecessor as a former foreign secretary, and national security adviser Shivshankar Menon said it was important to note that the Doklam standoff was different from the past as it came at a time of “several stress points”, and involved a third country, Bhutan, in a push to change the status quo, even as China kept up an unprecedented level of rhetoric.
“I consider them symptoms of stress in the relationship, a relationship that needs to be recalibrated,” Mr. Menon said in an exclusive interview.
