New Delhi: External Affairs minister (EAM) S. Jaishankar on Saturday said that India’s border with China has become “more alive” and requires a much greater commitment of Indian troops on a sustained basis. Speaking at an event in the national capital, the EAM listed New Delhi’s policy approach to enhance infrastructure along the frontier. He added that India has bolstered its military capabilities along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) since the clashes in Ladakh’s Galwan Valley in 2020 and India’s capability to “deploy” its troops on that border has seen “a very marked” improvement.
During a discussion on the ongoing efforts by New Delhi and Beijing to normalise their relations that came under severe strain following the over four-year border face-off in Eastern Ladakh, Mr Jaishankar said, “What has happened today is the border with China has become more alive in a way. It has required a much greater commitment of troops on a sustained basis. The fact is that the work we had already done allowed that kind of numbers to be deployed out there, and the work we continue to do will maintain those numbers,” he said.
“Just think about the last few years. How often do you now read – a new tunnel has been built, some new bridge has been built, another airfield has been commissioned. You’re getting this news with greater and greater frequency in the last decade,” he added.
On the India-United States trade deal, the minister talks continue to resolve the last stretch of concerns and the negotiations are approaching the “finishing line”, adding that many of the remaining issues are “not so much at our end” and that more changes have occurred on the American side.
“For us the key is that we want a trade deal which is beneficial, it is balanced and which would give us a comparative advantage over groups of comparable economies. That is really what we are looking for and that is really our expectation of where we would be when the trade deal is done,” Mr Jaishankar said.
He also called for looking at the proposed trade pact from a “larger perspective” of both countries. “In our case, many of our early (trade) deals were done with Asian economies and many of those Asian economies were actually competitive economies. The gains which people expected from those FTAs (free trade agreements) did not exactly materialise,” he said.
The external affairs minister also suggested that issues relating to tariffs were sorted out. “If you are serious, you go tariff line by tariff line. That takes time. Now we’ve done it the painstaking way. Not everybody has had the patience or frankly the understanding to bear with it. But I think having put in that effort, we have now reached almost the finishing line. I think bear with it and hopefully we’ll get it,” he said.
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