NEW DELHI, 09 July 2021, (TON): External affairs minister S Jaishankar said that the fact that China has not observed bilateral agreements on the border issue has disturbed the foundations of India’s ties with China.

Speaking in Moscow, where he will hold talks with his counterpart Sergey Lavrov, Jaishankar said for the last one year, there had been a lot of concern about the relationship because China had not observed agreements that “it had signed up to when it came to our border”.

“After 45 years, we actually had a border incident with casualties. And peace and tranquillity on the border, for any country, is the foundation of a relationship with a neighbour. So naturally the foundationship (sic) has got disturbed, so has the relationship,” said the minister. India and China had last year arrived at a 5-point consensus in Moscow to resolve the LAC stand-off. The disengagement process remains far from complete though despite India repeatedly saying that early and complete disengagement is necessary for overall development of ties. Jaishankar said though that there was no nuclear arms race between India and China.

In the talks with Lavrov, the two countries are expected to focus on the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan and on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s upcoming summit with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.