"Gone back to where the situation was in 2020": EAM Jaishankar on patrolling agreement between India-China along LAC

New Delhi [India], October 22 : External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, while speaking at the 'NDTV World Summit 2024: The India Century' on Monday said that India has reached an agreement with China on patrolling arrangements which would enable return of the situation before May 2020.
"What Foreign Secretary has said is what I can also say, that we reached an agreement on patrolling and with that we have gone back to where the situation was in 2020. We can say that the disengagement process with China has been completed...There are areas which for various reasons after 2020 because they had blocked us so we had blocked them. So what has happened is we have reached an understanding which will allow the patrolling. I think the understanding to my knowledge is that we will be able to do the patrolling which we were doing in 2020. I think it's a good development. It's a positive development and I would say it's a product of very patient and very persevering diplomacy...We've been negotiating since September 2020, when I met my counterpart Wang Yi, in Moscow at that time...I think it creates a basis that peace and tranquility, which there should be in the border areas, which there was before 2020, we will be able to come back to that," the EAM said.
The actions of Chinese military in 2020 along the LAC in eastern Ladakh had put the bilateral relationship under "exceptional stress".
Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, who addressed a special media briefing ahead of PM Modi's visit to Russia for the BRICS Summit, said India and China have reached an agreement on the patrolling arrangements along Line of Actual Control (LAC).
The agreement was reached ahead of the BRICS Summit which will be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Misri said as a result of the discussions with the Chinese interlocutors an agreement has been arrived at on patrolling arrangements along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the India-China border areas.
He said this is leading to dis-engagement and eventually a resolution of the issues that arose after action by Chinese military in eastern Ladakh in 2020.
Jaishankar also slammed Canada for applying inconsistent standards in diplomatic relations amid ongoing diplomatic tensions between the two countries.
He pointed out the contrasting ways in which Canadian and Indian diplomats are treated in each other's countries.
"So apparently, the license that they give themselves is totally different from the kind of restrictions that they impose on diplomats in Canada. When we tell them you have people openly threatening leaders of India, diplomats of India. Their answer is freedom of speech. When Indian journalists make social media comments, if you threaten the Indian High Commissioner, he is supposed to accept it as freedom of speech. But if an Indian journalist says the Canadian High Commissioner walked out of South Block looking very grumpy, it is foreign interference. Even double standards are mild words for it. There is this thing that we will do differently at home. We will do it differently abroad. We will do it our way, but that doesn't apply to you. I think these are the larger adjustments which have to happen in this changing world," he said.
The EAM said that India was very supportive of the Pakistani presidency of SCO.
He said, "I did not meet him (Nawaz Sharif). I went there for the SCO meeting. As I had said earlier, I just went there to attend the meeting. I am a good SCO member. We were very supportive of the Pakistani presidency of SCO. We all wished that SCO's Presidency goes on smoothly. I went there, met everyone, shook hands, had a good meeting and came back home."
Jaishankar said that not many world leaders have the mettle to visit Ukraine, and Russia and also hold conversations with leaders of Middle Eastern nations that are at war.
"Prime Minister Modi went to Russia, and he met President Putin. Then he went to Kyiv. Just look over the last 10 years. Right now there is a war going on in Ukraine. How many countries, how many Prime Ministers, how many leaders have the ability to go to Moscow, talk frankly, go to Kyiv, talk frankly, go back to Moscow and go back to Kyiv? Similarly, there's another war going on in the Middle East. Now, not many people know that even last year, the number of times where actually we've had conversations with Iran and conversations with Israel. That's also there," he said.
Jaishankar added that the world trusts India because of its performance at global level.
"People trust us to stand for their interests. G7 is very keen, please join our conference, you are a big democratic market economy and an influential player. This is how you keep yourself relevant, and this happens if you have a confident leadership. They [western countries] do it because of our performance," he said.