At least 24 soldiers were killed in clashes between India and China in the Himalayas in mid-2020, but rounds of diplomatic and military talks contained the confrontations.
Violence erupted in the eastern sector of the undemarcated border between the two nuclear-armed Asian powers in December, but did not result in any deaths.
“The situation remains in my opinion very fragile because there are places where our forces are deployed very close to each other, so in terms of military assessment the situation is very dangerous,” Jaishankar said in a forum for India Today magazine.
He added that Indo-Chinese relations cannot return to normal before the border dispute is resolved in line with the September 2020 principled agreement he reached with his Chinese counterpart.
“The Chinese have to fulfill what has been agreed upon, which they find difficult,” he said.
He noted that despite the withdrawal of forces from both sides from many areas, there are ongoing discussions about unresolved matters.
He said, “We made it clear to the Chinese that we cannot accept a breach of the peace and quiet, and you cannot violate the agreement while wanting the rest of the relations to continue as if nothing had happened. This cannot continue.”
Jaishankar said he discussed the situation with his new Chinese counterpart, Qin Gang, on the sidelines of a G20 foreign ministers’ meeting hosted by India this month.
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