2024: Will India and China be able to put the past behind them in 2024? S Jaishankar, External Affairs Minister, stated on Tuesday that it all depends on Chinese policy. The Union minister stressed the importance of mutuality between the two countries in an interview with the news agency ANI.
We attempted to build a relationship based on three mutuals, he explained. This relationship will struggle to advance unless that mutuality is recognized.
Today, part of the problem is exactly because… in 2020, agreements were disregarded and mutuality at which this relationship is predicated was not followed, Jaishankar said of the standoff between Indian and Chinese troops in Ladakh’s Galwan Valley. When you ask me where it would go, I would say a lot of it depends on what is the Chinese policy.
Legacy building in dealing with China?
The external affairs minister also discussed legacy building and the foreign policies of Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Patel, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in dealing with China’s issues.
Over the past 75 years of our foreign policy, a dual approach towards China has emerged—realism and what Jaishankar terms as ‘non-realism’ or idealism. This dichotomy traces back to the very beginning, with Nehru and Sardar Patel holding sharply contrasting views on how to engage with China, remarked Jaishankar.
The Modi government has been very much more in conformity with the strain of realism which originated from Sardar Patel (in dealing with China) he stated.
For dealing with China on the basis of realism, Jaishankar made the case. He continued, that strain of realism that extends all the way from Sardar Patel to Narendra Modi The alternative strain which starts from Nehru’s China’s first policy ends on the Chindiya policy
On whether India always lost mind games to China, Jaishankar said, I don’t think we always lost out, but at various points in time, when we talk about parts of Another example of how difficult it would be to understand the past today is the Panchsheel Agreement.
The role of assurance and confidence, as well as the fact that we are a multi-millennium civilization. All of this should be reflected in our demeanor, standing, and approach to other countries the minister added.
Ratnavali