NEW DELHI: Peace and tranquillity in border areas is a pre-requisite for development of bilateral relationship with China, and the two sides will be discussing de-escalation and effective management of activities in these areas in the coming days, external affairs minister (EAM) S Jaishankar told Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.
A brief uproar was also witnessed following his statement, and members of opposition parties walked out of the House after Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar disallowed them from seeking some clarifications on the matter. Jaishankar had made an identical statement in Lok Sabha on Tuesday.
Making a statement in the Upper House on “Recent Developments in India’s Relations with China”, Jaishankar stated that China is in “illegal occupation” of 38,000sqkm of Indian territory in Aksai Chin as a result of the 1962 conflict and Pakistan “illegally” yielded 5,180sqkm of Indian territory to China, which has been under Chinese occupation since 1948. The minister said India and China have held talks for multiple decades to resolve the boundary issue.
“While there is a Line of Actual Control (LAC), it doesn’t have a common understanding in some areas. We remain committed to engaging with China through bilateral discussions to arrive at a fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable framework for boundary settlement,” he added.