External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Saturday, elaborated on how military and diplomacy both played a key role in reaching the border patrolling agreement between India and China along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). He, however, also emphasised that it would take time to build trust and willingness between the two nations. Addressing an interactive session with students at FLAME University in Pune, Jaishankar said that since 2020, "The situation in the border has been very disturbed and that's had a very negative impact on the overall relationship".
"Since September 2020, We have been negotiating with the Chinese on how to find a solution," he added. The Foreign Minister highlighted that the agreement involved addressing three major issues, the first and "most pressing one" being disengagement as the troops of both the countries are "very, very close up to each other and the possibility of something happening is there" The second, he said, is "de-escalation" and then the third "larger issue of how do you manage the border and how do you negotiate the boundary settlement". Jaishankar stated that as of now the governments are engaging in the first part which is disengagement, understanding of how the troops return to their bases and the blocking of patrolling.
"And that is what we have been trying to negotiate now for the last two years", Jaishankar remarked. "Because after four years of a very disturbed border, where peace and tranquillity have really been shattered, i.
