LAC friction can’t be swept under carpet, says envoy

BEIJING: India’s ambassador to China Vikram Misri has warned against efforts to sweep the ongoing India-China border friction “under the carpet” as a minor problem because it has damaged the very “foundation” of bilateral ties and put the dialogue mechanisms implemented to maintain peace along the disputed boundary under considerable strain.

Referring to the talk of “consensus” to maintain peace at the border, Misri said similar understandings were reached in the past as well but indicated that paying mere lip service will not work anymore.

“Though they were tested on multiple occasions, these mechanisms and structures helped maintain the all-important peace and tranquillity on the borders, thereby helping create the environment in which the India-China relationship grew spectacularly between 1988 and 2019,” Misri said.

“But we must acknowledge that these enabling structures and the fundamental premise of the closer developmental partnership have been placed under considerable strain by the serious incidents and the resultant violation of peace and tranquillity at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh in April 2020 and thereafter,” the Indian ambassador said to Indian and Chinese diplomats and scholars in a virtual exchange held last week.

The failure of the existing mechanisms and the resulting friction should be acknowledged and addressed, he said, and not dismissed as a minor incident.

“We have also seen a tendency in some quarters to sweep this situation under the carpet and characterise it as just a minor issue and a matter of perspective. This too is inadvisable as it can only take us further away from a sustained solution to present difficulties and deeper into an unfulfilling stalemate,” he said.

“In fact, it would be tantamount to running away from the problem and in a direction opposite to that where the promise of our closer development partnership lies.”

Misri did not say which “quarters” were showing the tendency but in the recent past Beijing has said that the border dispute should be kept in its “appropriate” place and should not be linked to overall bilateral ties.