NEW DELHI: External affairs minister S Jaishankar said on Saturday that the recent Line of Actual Control (LAC) pact to tamp down the border tension with China was part of the government’s “very determined effort” as it stood its ground during the standoff with Beijing.
Jaishankar also heaped praises on the military for its role in defending the country and said that military and diplomacy played their part in making thaw with Bejing possible.
“…Today we have reached where we have, there are two reasons for it, one- very determined effort on our part to stand our ground and make our point and this would only happen because the military was there in very unimaginable conditions to defend the country and the military did its part and diplomacy did its part,” Jaishankar said at an event in Pune.
The external affairs minister also highlighted the improved infrastructure in the past 10 years as one of the factors that led China to pull back its troops to the position where it was placed prior to the 2020 Galwan clash.
“And the second is because actually in the last decade, we have also improved our infrastructure…I think the combination of all of this has led to where it is. When Prime Minister Modi and President Xi met, it was decided that the foreign ministers and the national security advisor will meet and see how to take this forward,” the minister was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
The landmark agreement India and China reached this week to end one of the longest military standoffs in recent times received the final seal of approval on Wednesday from PM Modi and President Xi Jinping, as the two held a bilateral meeting in Kazan after a gap of five years and endorsed the deal.
This, according to the Indian side, will lead to a further easing of the situation along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). As the next step forward, the two leaders agreed in their 50-minute meeting to soon have the Special Representatives (SRs) talks on the India-China boundary question, which has not taken place since 2019, and underlined the need to take relations forward from a “strategic and long-term perspective, enhance strategic communication and explore cooperation to address developmental challenges”.