Won't accept any attempt to unilaterally change LAC: Jaishankar

NEW DELHI: India will not accept any attempt to unilaterally change the Line of Actual Control (LAC) said foreign minister S. Jaishankar on Saturday evening. The pandemic, he said, had put “severe stress” on the India-China relationship.
Delivering the Sardar Patel Memorial Lecture, he said, ties with China had been stable for three decades, “as the two nations addressed inherited challenges and new circumstances."
"Peace and tranquillity in the border areas provided the basis for expanded cooperation in other domains. But as the pandemic unfolded, the relationship has come under severe stress. To restore normalcy, agreements between the two countries must be respected scrupulously in their entirety. Where the Line of Actual Control is concerned, any attempt to unilaterally change the status quo is unacceptable.”
India, Jaishankar said, “will approach the world in a more proactive way in the aftermath of the pandemic.”
“Indian diplomacy will be more integrated with our defence and security needs, more supportive of our economic and commercial interests, more aware of our technology capabilities and offerings, and more sensitive to the diaspora.”
Acknowledging the difficulties of two civilisations, India and China, growing side by side, Jaishankar said, “the relationship cannot be immune to changes in the assumptions that underpinned it."
"Large civilizational states re-emerging in close proximity will not have naturally easy ties. Their interests are best served by a sustained engagement based on mutual respect and mutual sensitivity.”