India-China ties under 'severe stress'

New Delhi: The ties between India and China have come under "severe stress" and the agreements inked by both sides over the last few years must be respected to restore normalcy in relations, Foreign Minister S Jaishankar said amid the eastern Ladakh border row.

The Foreign Minister, delivering the Sardar Patel Memorial lecture, also made it clear that any attempt to unilaterally change the status quo of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) is "unacceptable" to India. During the lecture aired on All India Radio, S Jaishankar also referred to cross-border terrorism and said India has to be uncompromising in combating it.

"As far as China is concerned, ties were stable for three decades as the two nations addressed inherited challenges and new circumstances Peace and tranquillity in the border areas provided the basis for expanded cooperation in other domains.

But as the pandemic unfolded, the relationship has come under severe stress," the minister said. "To restore normalcy, agreements between the two countries must be respected scrupulously in their entirety. Where the Line of Actual Control is concerned, any attempt to unilaterally change the status quo is unacceptable," he added.

"The relationship cannot be immune to changes in the assumptions that underpinned it," he said.

India has been maintaining that the agreements inked between the two countries since 1993 for management of the frontier must be respected and effectively implemented, saying peace and tranquility along the LAC is the basis for the overall development of the ties.