External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Friday said that India and China are going through a bad phase in their relationship because of Beijing's actions and violation of agreements between the two neighbouring nations and for which it still doesn't have a "credible explanation".
Responding to a question at a panel "Greater Power Competition: The Emerging World Order" at the Bloomberg New Economic Forum in Singapore, Jaishankar said that it is for the Chinese leadership to answer where they want to take the bilateral relationship.
"I don't think that the Chinese have any doubt on where we stand on our relationship and what's not gone right with it. I have been meeting my Chinese counterpart a number of times, and you would have experience and I speak very clearly, reasonably, understandably. There is no lack of clarity, so if they want to hear it, I am sure they would have heard it," Jaishankar said.
"But the issue is where is India positioned - some of it is about China because - we are neighbours and going through a particularly bad patch of our relationship because they have taken a set of actions and violation of agreements for which they still don't have a credible explanation and that indicates some rethink about where they want to take our relationship, but that's for them to answer," he added referring to the Eastern Ladakh border clash with China.
The Eastern Ladakh border stand-off between India and China erupted last year. Both sides have witnessed a violent clash in the Pangong lake areas.
There is a stalemate on complete disengagement from friction points along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) following the actions of the Chinese Army last year. While areas like Pangong Tso and Gogra have seen a pullback of troops by the two sides after several rounds of talks, Hot Springs is yet to see disengagement.
On Thursday, India and China held talks on border issues.
( With inputs from ANI )
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