China relations profoundly disturbed after Galwan Clashes: Jaishankar

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has said that the violence at the India-China border was a "sharp departure" from the relationship that was built over decades and has left the relationship between the two countries "profoundly disturbed". "And when you had friction points which have a large number of troops at different points very close to each other, then something tragic like what happened on 15th of June happened." Jaishankar further said, "To underline the enormity of that, it was the first military casualty we had after 1975. So, what it has done is, it has obviously had a very deep public impact, very major political impact and it has left the relationship profoundly disturbed."

Speaking at a virtual event hosted by the Asia Society on Friday, he said that India has built the relationship with China over the course of last 30 years "and a basis for building that relationship has been peace and tranquillity along the Line of Actual Control."Dr Jaishankar said there are multiple agreements, starting from 1993, which created the framework for that peace and tranquillity, which limited the military forces that came to the border areas, how to manage the border, how border troops behave when they approach each other.

Raising concerns regarding the troop build-up at the LAC, Jaishankar said that there are multiple agreements since 1993 that have been the basis for maintaining peace and tranquillity at the border and despite many rounds of talks at diplomatic and military level, disengagement and de-escalation of tensions have still not materialised. "There are today a very large number of troops [of PLA] with weapons concentrated on that segment of the border and that is obviously a very critical security challenge that we face," said Jaishankar. 

Jaishankar said that apart from the Wuhan Summit in April 2018, there was a similar summit in Chennai last year and the idea of the summit was that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping spend time, talk to each other directly about their concerns."What happened this year of course was a very sharp departure. Now it's not just a sharp departure from the conversation, it's a sharp departure over a course of relationship over 30 years," he said.