Foreign minister S Jaishankar on Sunday replied to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s criticism that the foreign minister does not understand the threat from China — when Jaishankar was asked to comment on it at a foreign policy session in Mysore. “I would have offered to take classes on China from Rahul Gandhi. But I discovered that he was taking classes on China from the Chinese ambassador. So I asked myself that I may as well go to the original source and talk to them,” Jaishankar said. “Unfortunately, foreign policy has also become an arena. I am not innocent and I am not saying that there should not be politics. Today I am in politics. I know everything in politics is political. But I think on certain issues, we have collective responsibility to behave in a way in which we do not weaken our collective position abroad,” Jaishankar said.
Speaking on the issue of China building a bridge in the Pangong Tso area, Jaishankar said, “The Chinese came there first in 1959 and then they occupied it in 1962. But it was projected as if we lost our territory to China. This was the case of some so-called model villages. These were built on areas which we lost in 1962 or before. You will never see me saying what should not have happened in 1962. I believe it was our collective failure without attributing any political colour,” Jaishankar said.
“What I would like to see is a serious China conversation and I am prepared to accept that there are differences of viewpoints on that. But if you reduce it to a kind of slanging match, well what can I say after that,” the foreign minister added.
Source link