Tokyo: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar took a swipe at China, claiming that Beijing failed to honor longstanding agreements with India and pointed fingers at it for the border conflicts in 2020, marking the first such incidents in over four decades. Speaking at the Raisina Roundtable in Tokyo, Jaishankar delved into the evolving world order, acknowledging a significant power shift in the Indo-Pacific.
“There is a reality of a very big power shift in the Indo-Pacific. When there are very big shifts in capabilities and influence and presumably ambitions, then there are all the accompanying ambitions and strategic consequences. Now, it’s not an issue whether you like it or you don’t like it. There’s a reality out there, you have to deal with that reality,” he said and added, “Ideally, we would assume that everybody would say, okay, things are changing, but let’s keep it as stable as we can”.
The External Affairs Minister emphasized the need to adapt to these changes and maintain stability, particularly in the face of growing capabilities, influence, and strategic consequences. Despite hoping for a collective effort to preserve stability, Jaishankar highlighted the contrasting behavior, particularly in the case of China.
Reflecting on the border tensions that escalated in 2020, Jaishankar noted, “Unfortunately, that’s not what we have seen in the last decade of our own experience in the case of China, for example, is between 1975 to 2020, which is really 45 years, there was no bloodshed on the border, and in 2020, changed, he said. We can disagree on many things, but when a country actually sort of does not observe written agreements with a neighbor, I think, you have caused … because … then raises a question mark about the stability of the relationship and frankly, about intentions.”
The border standoff in eastern Ladakh, beginning in May 2020, led to a severe deterioration in India-China relations, with the Galwan Valley clash in June 2020 marking a significant military conflict.
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‘Big bullies don’t provide $4.5 bn to neighbours’
In a veiled dig at Maldives President Mohamad Muizzu, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has said that “big bullies don’t provide $4.5 billion aid” when neighboring countries are in distress, in response to a question about whether India was being perceived as a “bully” in the region.
Jaishankar’s remark came after Muizzu, in an indirect reference to India, said in January that no country had the license to “bully us”, even though it was a tiny nation, amid a diplomatic tussle between both countries. Jaishankar stressed India’s active role in providing timely assistance to its neighbors during crises when asked whether New Delhi was perceived as a “bully” in the subcontinent and Indian Ocean region.
