Tensions along India and China’s disputed Himalayan border dominated a meeting of the foreign ministers of the Asian neighbors in the South Asian country’s western state of Goa.
(Bloomberg) — Tensions along India and China’s disputed Himalayan border dominated a meeting of the foreign ministers of the Asian neighbors in the South Asian country’s western state of Goa.
The focus remains on resolving the border crisis, India’s Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar tweeted after meeting his counterpart, Qin Gang, on the sidelines of a gathering of top diplomats for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.
The two ministers also discussed the on going G-20, which India is hosting, and the BRICS grouping that has India, Brazil, South Africa, Russia and China as members, Jaishankar added in his tweet.
India and China share a 3,488 kilometer (2,167 mile) long unmarked border. Both sides have amassed thousands of troops, tanks, artillery guns, missiles and fighter jets on the western section of this frontier after the worst tensions in over four decades erupted in the summer of 2020.
More than 18 rounds of talks between diplomats and military commanders have failed to resolve the dispute.
Last week, at a similar meeting of SCO defense ministers, India’s Rajnath Singh told his Chinese counterpart that relations between the two countries could not be normal until the border issue was resolved.
India is the current host of the eight member Chinese-founded Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which also includes Russia and Pakistan, a group intended to counter the US-led global system.
China wants to keep the border issue separate from the overall relationship and concentrate on trade and economic links. India has put the dispute at the very center of bilateral relations.
India-Russia Talks
In a separate meeting between Jaishankar and Russia’s Sergei Lavrov, both sides agreed to strengthen and coordinate their positions at international forums such as the UN and the G20.
Despite pressure from the US and its allies on New Delhi to take measures to punish President Vladimir Putin for invading Ukraine, India has stayed neutral and not voted against Russia at the UN. India has also continued to buy massive amounts of discounted Russian crude.
Russia remains India’s largest supplier of weapons and military hardware, though purchases have dropped over the last five years, according to a recent report of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, an independent think tank that tracks the global weapons trade.
Last week, the defense ministers of the two countries met in New Delhi and agreed to strengthen defense cooperation and military ties. However, India is unable to find a way to pay for weapons in dollars without violating sanctions by the US and its allies. That has forced Moscow to halt deliveries of military supplies.
Payments for weapons amounting to more than $2 billion have been stuck for about a year. Russia remains unwilling to accept Indian rupees due to exchange-rate volatility.
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