Nobody knows the actual reason for this sudden flare up. There is a lot of conjecture around why it happened.
“So, whatever they publish is taken as an official position. What we need is for leaders to calm down,” Madhav told News18.
China has put out a pre-condition that India must withdraw its troops from the Dhoklam area before any attempts to defuse the situation. I remember you wrote a piece that increasingly the kind of reaction from Chinese is becoming aggressive and almost bordering on threat. Why are we seeing this kind of face off?
It is a bit surprising. The Chinese media is always seen as guided by the political dispensation in of the country, so one takes it as the official position when Chinese media writes about any issue. The kind of aggression and articulation seen now is thus a bit surprising. For the first time after so many years, there are perception difference on where the line of actual control is. That is why we have an issue on the tri-junction area. What is needed at this juncture is for all of us to calm down. Such a situation has risen before also. I would recall the incident in Sundaransu village of Arunachal Pradesh in 1986, we had a similar situation and direct eyeball to eye ball confrontation for 6-7 years. What is needed is that for the leadership at both sides maintain peace and handle the situation.
Is China getting worried about Narendra Modi’s growing stature at the international forum?
Nobody knows the actual reason for this sudden flare up. There is a lot of conjecture around why it happened. I would say that last month, when the leaders of both countries met at Astana, the meeting was so very cordial. President Xi Jinping went out of his way to spend time with Modi and he was so free with him and talked about how he like the film Dangal. So rather than trying to invent reasons for this whole thing, what is immediately needed is for the tempers to cool down and then we can think of the way to out of this standoff.
Defence Minister Arjun Jaitley said that India in 2017 is Different from what it was in 1962. Is that what you think as well?
Before that many statements have come out and after that also many statements came out. Today’s Global Times editorial was very harsh, which is an understatement. Generally not used in a diplomatic relationship. I really don’t go by the statements, but the immediate requirement is for everyone to cool down, allow for mutual solutions.
Will bilateral trade Between the Countries being affected by this?
Hopefully it won’t be affected. from the times of Rajiv Gandhi, border issues do not affect our normal bilateral activities, including trade, academic relations or people to people relations with china. Sudden happenings at the border has not affected since the times of Rajiv Gandhi. The phrase that was used was that let us freeze the border issues and talk about other issues. I believe that will continue and that is the way forward.
Source: News18