MELBOURNE, Feb 12: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said today that the situation at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) has arisen due to the disregard of written agreements by China not to mass soldiers at the border and noted that Beijing’s actions have become an issue of “legitimate concern” for the entire international community.
Jaishankar’s remarks in response to a question on the eastern Ladakh border standoff came a day after he and other Foreign Ministers of Quad –US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Japan’s Yoshimasa Hayashi and Australia’s Marise Payne – on Friday held talks and vowed to expand cooperation to keep the Indo-Pacific free from “coercion”.
When asked whether the India-China border standoff issue came up for discussion during the Quad Foreign Ministers’ meeting here on Friday, Jaishankar replied, “Yes”.
“Yes, we (Quad) had a discussion on India-China relations because it was part of how we briefed each other about what was happening in our neighbourhood. And it’s an issue in which a lot of countries legitimately take interest, particularly if they are from the Indo-Pacific region,” he said while speaking at a joint press conference along with his Australian counterpart here after their bilateral meeting.
The situation at the LAC has arisen due to the disregard by China in 2020 of written agreements with India not to mass forces at the border, he said.
“So, when a large country disregards written commitments, I think it’s an issue of legitimate concern for the entire international community,” he added. (PTI)
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