As China and India push to mend ties, strained for nearly half a decade, Foreign Minister S Jaishankar said that “what happened in 2020 was not the way to address issues”. The minister’s remarks recalled the way China had unilaterally tried to change the status quo along the Line of Actual Control or LAC.

Mr Jaishankar also acknowledged that India and China will continue to have issues in the “foreseeable future”, but said that “there are ways of addressing them” without getting into a conflict.

“We know that, between India and China, at least in the foreseeable future, there will be issues, but there are ways of addressing those issues, and what happened in 2020 was not the way,” External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said in a conversation with non-profit Asia Society.

The minister was speaking about the way ties between India and China have evolved over the years. After China’s unilateral decision to alter the status quo is eastern Ladakh, which led to a military clash followed by a standoff in 2020, ties between the two Asian giants went into a deep freeze for nearly five years.

“We feel that from October, 2024, the relationship has seen some improvement. What we are trying, step by step, is to see if we can rebuild, undo some of the damage which happened as a result of the actions in 2020,” Mr Jaishankar said.

China’s actions and the subsequent military standoff led to a feeling of betrayal and severe distrust in New Delhi. Anti-China sentiment surged across the nation, impacting everything from people-to-people ties, business and bilateral ties, trade, technology, visas, and even air travel.

It was only in October 2024, after dozens of rounds of talks, both at the diplomatic and military levels, that the two countries reached an agreement – to return to the status quo in place before 2020. It was only on the basis of this understanding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Russia.

India and Tibet (China) share an over 4,400 km border in two parts known as the Line of Actual Control and the MacMohan Line respectively. The LAC stretches across Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Sikkim, while the MacMohan Line stretches across Arunachal Pradesh.