S Jaishankar, India’s external affairs minister, is blaming China’s continued violation of agreements on not massing forces at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) for the sour mood in its relations with India. He also warned countries not to accept Chinese aid, which might trap them in a debt trap.
On Saturday, Jaishankar made the remarks at a discussion on the theme ‘Regional order and security in the Indo-Pacific’ at the Munich Security Conference. He spoke alongside his Australian and Japanese counterparts, Marise Payne and Yoshimasa Hayashi. ‘It’s a problem we’re having with China. And the problem is this – that for 45 years, there was peace, there was stable border management, there were no military casualties on the border from 1975,’ he said in response to a question on India’s troubled relations with China.
Those agreements changed when China violated our agreements not to bring military forces close to the Line of Actual Control. ‘Now, the state of the border will determine the state of the relationship, that’s a given. Accordingly, relations with China are going through a very trying time right now,’ he said, referring to the military standoff that began in May 2020.
India’s Foreign Minister Jaishankar dismissed the notion that the differences with China had improved the country’s ties with the West, stating that those relations were ‘quite decent’ even before June 2020 when 20 Indian soldiers and four Chinese soldiers were killed in a deadly clash between Indian and Chinese forces. In response to a question about India speaking out against China’s actions on the LAC while abstaining from voting on the Ukraine issue at the UN Security Council, he also argued that the LAC cannot be compared to the Ukraine crisis.
AK Abdul Momen, Bangladesh’s foreign minister, pointed out that Bangladesh requires funds for infrastructure projects to meet the aspirations of its people, while China provides a ‘basket of money’ and aggressive and affordable proposals, while aid from other partners is often accompanied by strings attached. Jaishankar warned countries against falling into a debt trap while accepting Chinese assistance. According to him, when international relations are competitive, every country will look for opportunities and see what they can accomplish, but while doing so, it is in their own interest to be cautious about what they’re getting into.
‘We have seen countries, including in our region, saddled with large debts. We have seen projects which are commercially unsustainable – airports where an aircraft doesn’t come, harbors where a ship doesn’t come. I think people would be justified in asking themselves what I am getting into,’ he said. He has warned that in the case of unsustainable projects, debt becomes equity, which then becomes another thing.
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