India has called on China to not “shift goalposts” in bilateral relations as they serve as an obstacle in managing border affairs and restoring peace at the frontiers.
Speaking at a virtual conference organized by a Chinese University, Indian envoy to China Vikram Misri said challenges like the COVID-19 pandemic, reviving economies and sweeping technological transformations have only served to amplify the importance of India-China relations.
Misri further said that the recent experience between the two countries suggests that at the ground level when managing a difficult situation, finding a resolution hinges on mature minds and consistency between words and actions.
"The first is to avoid shifting goalposts. For long, the Indian and Chinese sides have adhered to a well-understood distinction between resolving the boundary question and managing border affairs," he said.
Misri then talked about the Galwan valley situation, in a very candid manner, and said both sides continued to have conversations about resolving the crisis on the Line of Actual Control, following disengagement at Galwan Valley, the north and south banks of Pangong Lake, and most recently at Gogra last month, were now taking up remaining friction areas.
"The key question is how to deal with them and ensure that outcomes are informed by reasonableness, maturity and respect for the maintenance of peace and tranquillity along our frontiers," Misri said.
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The meeting held virtually was co-hosted by the School of International Studies of Sichuan University (SCU), China Centre for South Asian Studies and Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA) in which several former envoys and scholars took part.
"The conversation between the two sides continues regarding the remaining locations and we hope that disengagement at the remaining friction areas will enable us to reach a point where we can pick up the threads of bilateral cooperation," he said.
Pointing out another obstacle that affects bilateral ties, the ambassador argued against taking a one-sided view of concerns and sensitivities, where one's own preoccupations trump any of those flagged by the other side.
