External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has said as he underlined that China falls into a somewhat different category because of the currently “abnormal” nature of ties which is an outcome of a violation of border management agreements by Beijing.
As reported by PTI, Jaishankar, who arrived in Santo Domingo on his first official visit to the Dominican Republic, also said,”India has seen a dramatic expansion in connectivity, contacts, and cooperation across the region. Pakistan, however, remains an exception to this in view of cross-border terrorism.”
Jaishankar said this on Friday while addressing the diplomatic corps and young minds of the diplomatic school of the Dominican Republic.
“Whether it is the US, Europe, Russia, or Japan, we are trying to ensure that all these ties advance without seeking exclusivity. China falls into a somewhat different category because of the boundary dispute and the currently abnormal nature of our ties. That is an outcome of a violation of agreements regarding border management by them,” Jaishankar said.
EAM also stressed that the rise of China and India in a parallel timeframe is also not without its competitive aspects. “When in other regions bid for Africa, the Pacific or Latin America, much of what is happening can be explained as the emergence of India’s potential global footprint. In many cases, it is the result of autonomous forces such as business or mobility,” he said.
India has been strongly criticizing China’s breach of agreements on border management by deploying a large number of troops and displaying aggressive behaviour along the Line of Actual Control in the eastern Ladakh region.
Earlier this week, India firmly told China that its violation of the border pacts has “eroded” the entire basis of bilateral ties and that all issues relating to the frontier must be resolved in accordance with the existing agreements.
The eastern Ladakh border standoff erupted on May 5, 2020, following a violent clash in the Pangong Lake area. The ties between the two countries nosedived significantly following the fierce clash in the Galwan Valley in June 2020 that marked the most serious military conflict between the two sides in decades.
In his address, Jaishankar went on to explain how India approaches the world and engages Latin America and what should today’s India and tomorrow’s India mean.
“India’s most pressing priorities are obviously in its neighbourhood. Given its size and economic strength, it is very much for the collective benefit that India takes a generous and non-reciprocal approach to cooperation with smaller neighbours. And that’s exactly what we have done in the last decade under Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” he said.
“It has seen a dramatic expansion in connectivity, contacts, and cooperation across the region. The exception to this of course, is Pakistan in view of cross-border terrorism. But whether it is the COVID challenge or more recent debt pressures, India has always stepped up for its neighbours,” he said, citing the case of Sri Lanka where India extended more than USD 4 billion of economic support during the island nation’s worst economic crisis in decades.
Jaishankar mentioned that India is working on expanding its influence in all directions by developing the concept of extended neighbourhoods. With ASEAN, India has adopted a policy known as ‘the Act East Policy’ that aims to establish deeper engagement with the Indo-Pacific region. To achieve this goal, India is collaborating with countries like Japan, the US, and Australia through a mechanism called the Quad.