External affairs minister S Jaishankar said ties between India and China were currently not normal, given a large number of troop deployments along the border, which was in contravention of the 1993-96 agreements.
Jaishankar addressed the media after holding extensive talks with his visiting Chinese counterpart Wang Yi covering the eastern Ladakh row and the geopolitical turmoil triggered by the crisis in Ukraine. He was joined by senior officials, including foreign secretary Harsh Shringla and MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi during the press meet.
This is the first major diplomatic engagement between India and China in nearly two years since the armies of the two nations fought along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh.
“My talks with Foreign Minister Wang Yi have just concluded. We met for about three hours and addressed a broad and broad substantive agenda in an open and candid manner. We discussed our bilateral relations that have been disturbed as a result of Chinese actions in April 2020,” the Minister said.
“I was honest in conveying our sentiment on this issue during talks with Wang Yi,” he said, adding restoration of normal ties will require restoration of normalcy in border areas.
“So long there are very large deployments, border situation is not normal. We still have ongoing friction areas, have made progress in resolving some friction areas including Pangong Tso. Our discussion today was about how to take this forward. There have been 15 rounds of talks.”
When asked if any timeline has been set for disengagement and de-escalation along the LAC, Jaishankar said, “There was no timeline…”
