KUALA LUMPUR: India has taken an ironclad stance that the country will not compromise when it comes to protecting its borders, sovereignty and people.
External Affairs Minister Dr S. Jaishankar said India's relationship with China has been "difficult" for various reasons, notably stemming from the 3,440km-long disputed border in Arunachal Pradesh state.
He criticised China for its actions since 2020, failing to uphold agreements dating back to the 1980s aimed at preventing encroachments and hostilities along the border.
Jaishankar said despite the ongoing boundary dispute, India has built a "substantial relationship" with China over the years, based on mutual understanding that both nations would refrain from deploying large numbers of soldiers to the border while the negotiations are underway.
"Hence, we will never have a situation where there will be violence and bloodshed on the boundary. This understanding, which started in the 1980s, was reflected in a number of agreements.
"Those agreements provided the stability upon which the India-China relationship progressed. There was trade, investment, tourism, and exchanges in various walks of life.
"Now, unfortunately, for reasons that are still not clear to us, these agreements were broken in 2020. We actually had violence and bloodshed on the border.
"My first duty to Indians is to secure the border. I can never compromise on that," he said in addressing concerns about the present administration's expenditure on the border, which critics argue could have been directed towards Indian welfare.
Jaishankar said this in response to a question on India-China ties during an interaction session with the Indian diaspora here on Wednesday.
The minister is currently on a two-day official visit to Malaysia starting Wednesday.
The Galwan Valley battle in India's northeast state of Arunachal Pradesh in June 2020 was the first fatal confrontation between the two sides since 1975. At least 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers were killed in clashes along their border in the western Himalayas.
Jaishankar highlighted ongoing negotiations with China, underscoring the importance of peace on the border in advancing the relationship with China.
"I engage with my counterpart (in China). We meet from time to time. Our military commanders negotiate with each other. But we are very clear that we had an agreement. There is a Line of Actual Control (in the Galwan Valley). We have a tradition of not bringing troops to that line.
"Both of us have bases some distance away, which is our traditional deployment place. And we want that normalcy. This will be the basis for the relationship going forward and we have been very, very honest with the Chinese about it," he added.
Jaishankar had on March 23 rubbished China's repeated claims on Arunachal Pradesh, calling them "ludicrous" and asserted that the state is a "natural part of India".
China has routinely claimed Arunachal Pradesh has "always been" its territory. China claims the region as South Tibet and has also named the area as 'Zangnan'.
China also objected to Indian leaders' visits to the state to highlight its claims.
Recently, the Chinese side objected to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Arunachal Pradesh where he dedicated the Sela Tunnel to the nation.
The US State Department had on March 20 said the United States recognises Arunachal Pradesh as part of India and "strongly opposes" any unilateral attempts to advance territorial claims in the northeastern Indian state that shares a border with China.