China has breached border pacts, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Tuesday, noting that continued tension will cast a natural shadow over the rest of this relationship.
"In terms of our own relationship with China, I think it's a long story. But the short version is that we had agreements on how to keep the border peaceful and tranquil. Those agreements were violated by China," he said in response to a question at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace think-tank.
"Because we have forward deployments of our militaries, those are resulting in tensions. Until those forward deployments are addressed, the tensions will continue. If the tensions continue, it casts a natural shadow over the rest of the relationship. So, our relationship hasn't been great for the last four years," he said.
The minister was questioned over tensions with China and, simultaneously, China overtaking every country of its trade partnership with India.
The relationship between the two nations plummeted sharply after the brutal clash in the Galwan Valley in June 2020, which was the most serious military confrontation between the two since their conflict began.
India has been insisting that relations with China cannot be normal unless peace is restored to the border areas.
The two sides have so far held 21 rounds of Corps Commander-level talks to resolve the standoff.
India has been asking the PLA to disengage from the Depsang and Demchok areas.
The last high-level military talks between the two sides was in February.
On trade, "China basically accounts for around 31-32 per cent of global manufacturing. A significant portion of that has occurred because for several decades, the international business, essentially Western-led, has decided to partner with China for mutual convenience," Jaishankar said.
"Today, for any country, if you are into any kind of consumption or even into any kind of manufacturing, sourcing out of China is something which is inevitable. Because if you are consuming, if you are not manufacturing and consuming, that probably means you get a lot of things for the cheapest. Even if you are manufacturing, a lot of your components and your semi-processed materials come out of there, he added.".
"So, in a sense, trade with China at one level is almost autonomous of the political or the rest of the relationship. I don't think it's just a question of numbers. You also need to look at what it is you are trading. Because there would be countries that would be more sensitive to their exposure. There would be countries who wouldn't care," Jaishankar said.
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