New Delhi: India has reminded China that their bilateral relations will remain at a “low ebb” until their military confrontation in Ladakh is fully resolved and urged Beijing to avoid viewing its relations with New Delhi from the perspective of China’s relations with third countries.
At the same time, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar also told his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi that India “never subscribed” to any clash of civilisations theory, days after Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Gen. Bipin Rawat cited the famous thesis of renowned political scientist Samuel Huntington.
“EAM conveyed that India had never subscribed to any clash of civilisations theory. He said that India and China had to deal with each other on merits and establish a relationship based on mutual respect,” a Ministry of External Affairs statement said quoting Jaishankar.
Jaishankar said, “For this, it was necessary that China avoid viewing our bilateral relations from the perspective of its relations with third countries. Asian solidarity would depend on the example set by India-China relations.”
Jaishankar, who met Wang on the sidelines of the SCO Summit at Dushanbe, Tajikistan, also said that while Indian and Chinese forces have been able to disengage themselves in the Gogra area of eastern Ladakh, some “outstanding issues” still need resolution.
“EAM therefore emphasized that the two sides should work towards early resolution of the remaining issues along the LAC in Eastern Ladakh while fully abiding by bilateral agreements and protocols,” the MEA statement said.
Both the ministers agreed that military and diplomatic officials of the two sides should meet again and continue their discussions to resolve the remaining issues at the earliest.
Both ministers last met on 14 July and since then there had been “some progress in the resolution of the remaining issues along the LAC in Eastern Ladakh”.
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‘The Clash of Civilizations’
Jaishankar’s remarks comes two days after CDS Rawat cited the famous thesis of renowned political scientist Samuel Huntington’s seminal work ‘The Clash of Civilizations And The Remaking of World Order’ in the context of China’s growing influence in Afghanistan, which is under the control of the Taliban, an Islamic fundamentalist group.
Citing the “clash of civilisation” theory Rawat had said it has been written there that the Sinic civilisation would ultimately come closer to Islamic civilisation to challenge the West.
The CDS also referred to China warming up to Iran and Turkey to have greater say in Afghanistan.
“China is becoming more and more aggressive and we share land borders with them. It’s time for us to start looking at our strategies as to how we are going to deal with the two borders – aggressive adversaries, Pakistan on the western front and China on the north,” Rawat had said Wednesday.
With respect to China’s increasing presence in Afghanistan, the CDS had asked, “They will get into Afghanistan in the time to come, will that lead to a clash of civilisations?”
(Edited by Neha Mahajan)
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