NEW DELHI: India and China always had differences over the boundary but border areas still remained fundamentally peaceful, said external affairs minister S Jaishankar on Thursday, adding that the violent exchanges in 2020 showed a willingness to disrupt the peace.
"For all the differences and disagreements that we may have had on the boundary, the central fact was that border areas still remain fundamentally peaceful. Last loss of life at India-China border before 2020 was as far back as 1975," said the Union minister addressing the 13th All India Conference of China Studies.
Jaishankar said that the events in Eastern Ladakh last year have profoundly disturbed the relationship because they not only signalled a disregard for commitments about minimising troop levels but also showed a willingness to breach peace and tranquillity.
Jaishankar said the India-China relationship is truly at the crossroads today and choices that are made will have profound repercussions not just for the two nations but for the entire world.
After the 1962 conflict, India and China exchanged ambassadors only in 1976, said Jaishankar underlining that rebuilding ties with China was painstaking and arduous.
The first Prime Ministerial visit to China after 1954 agreement over Tibet happened in 1988 by the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
Jaishankar said that over the last three decades, interactions and exchanges between the two nuclear neighbours grew steadily in some areas.
China became one of India's largest trading partners, a significant source of investment, a participant in projects and infrastructure building, a very substantial destination for tourism and education, he said.
"In the years that passed, we obviously did not see significant progress on arriving at a common understanding of the alignment of the LAC in India-China border areas. At the same time, there was also increasing construction of border infrastructure, especially on the Chinese side," said Jaishankar.
India, China parallel rise is 'unique happening in human history'
Noting the similarities and contrasts between India and China Jaishankar said that the two countries' parallel rise in the contemporary era is a "unique happening in human history".
While the two countries have some similarities, especially of size and history, Jaishankar noted that there is also very interesting cultural, political and economic contrasts.
"Both are in the process of building a modern nation-state from a civilized society. And their parallel rise in the contemporary era albeit at different pace and intensity is a unique happening in the human history," he said.
Jaishankar said there is a need to invest deeply in the study of China.
"China's salience in the global order is self-evident, that it is the proximate neighbour of India only makes stronger studies and even more compelling case," he added.
(With inputs from agencies)