Now the focus will be on de-escalation… Know what External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on the relationship with China on LAC

New Delhi: Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar said on Saturday that after last month’s agreement with China on LAC in eastern Ladakh, disengagement work has been completed and now the focus will be on de-escalation. Jaishankar made it clear that he/she sees disengagement only as a withdrawal of forces, nothing more and nothing less. It is also being seen that Jaishankar is giving statements very thoughtfully, because every word has its own special importance in diplomacy. Let us try to understand this in more depth.

What is the situation at present?

Let us inform that Indian and Chinese armies recently completed the disengagement along the LAC in Demchok and Depsang areas of Ladakh, and both sides resumed their patrolling activities after a gap of about four and a half years. Two weeks before his/her statement on Saturday, Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar had said in Canberra, Australia that the chapter of disengagement with China is now over. This means that after disengagement, the next step will be de-escalation, and then the process of de-induction.

Defense expert Qamar Aga says that these three steps – disengagement, de-escalation and de-induction – are important steps towards reducing tension, and are very important for conflict resolution. Disengagement means withdrawal of forces, while de-escalation means bringing the conflict to a lower level. Under de-escalation, both sides agree that a certain number of troops and weapons should be deployed in the disputed area, so that the situation does not deteriorate further.

What further steps will be taken?

Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar has said twice that now the focus of both the countries will be on de-escalation. In a joint press conference with the Australian Foreign Minister in Canberra, Jaishankar had said that there will be a meeting between the foreign ministers and national security advisors of the two countries regarding de-escalation. Apart from this, after the meeting between Xi Jinping and Narendra Modi in Kazan, it was also said that a meeting of special representatives on the border issue will be scheduled soon. However, no official news has come out about this meeting till now. The meetings between Jaishankar and Wang Yi in June and July are also considered important behind the agreement between the two countries in Kazan. Thus, the way forward after disengagement will largely depend on the outcomes of these meetings.

Situation improved with 4 years of diplomacy

On 10 September 2020, a meeting of the foreign ministers of the two countries was held in Moscow. The press release of that meeting between Jaishankar and Wang Yi said that both the ministers had agreed that the current tense situation on the border is not in anyone’s interest. In such a situation, soldiers from both sides should take forward the dialogue, disengage, maintain appropriate distance and reduce tension. Recently, Jaishankar himself admitted that the recent patrolling agreement between India and China originated from that meeting and it was only because of the continuous dialogue that this agreement was possible.

Trust in China still difficult

In the joint statement made in Moscow in 2020 that the Foreign Minister had mentioned, both the countries had agreed on disengagement, but there was no mention of de-escalation. Experts say that there has been a deep gap of distrust between India and China in the past. The Foreign Minister many times hinted, and sometimes directly said that China does not respect agreements. This mistrust was also reflected in the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s first hesitant reaction following the announcement of the patrolling arrangement between the two countries.