China has once again put all the blame on India for dragging the border conflict in Eastern Ladakh, one day after the Minister of External Affairs, S Jaishankar said that the present boundary deadlock arose because China had disregarded the written bilateral agreement that clearly states against the amassing of troops along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
On Monday, China sought to blame India for the border conflict in the Eastern parts of Ladakh. The Foreign Ministry of China made a statement on Monday stating that the merits of the matters are very clear as far as China-India relations are concerned and the responsibility does not rest with China. The spokesperson of the Foreign Ministry of China, Wang Wenbin responded to the questions on the remarks that were made by Jaishankar in Melbourne during and after the meeting of the Foreign Ministers under the Quad (Quadrilateral Security Dialogue) over the last weekend.
The Spokesperson said that Beijing and New Delhi were in communication to improve the management of border areas. He said that now both the countries are in communication on improving the management of borders and the measures of building trust. He said that China had hoped that the Indian side would abide by their agreements and it should not issue irresponsible remarks and should uphold the peace and tranquillity along the border regions with concrete actions as well.
Wang said that as far as the border issues were concerned, China had always maintained that they should follow through on treaties and agreements they signed and they should jointly uphold the peace and tranquillity at the border areas. He also said that they hope both sides will be continuing with the communication through diplomatic and military channels to resolve the outstanding issues between both nations.
Jaishankar during his statement said quite indirectly that the situation had arisen because of the disregard by Beijing in 2020 of the written agreements with India which stated that there would be no amassment of armed forces at the border. He also said that when a large nation disregards written commitments, it becomes an issue of a legitimate concern for the entire international community of the world. The agreements which are critical in order to maintain peace along the Indo-Chinese border are the 1993 Agreement on the Maintenance of Peace and Tranquillity along the Line of Actual Control. The second agreement is the 1996 Agreement between both countries on Confidence-building Measures in the Military Field along the LAC.
Since May 2020, both countries have been locked in a border standoff and even after various rounds of military and diplomatic talks, the result is only the partial disengagements of troops from the friction points at the border areas. Both sides have been blaming each other for the ongoing tensions and it has resulted in a slump in ties and tens of thousands of troops are known to be deployed along either side of the Line of Actual Control.
