NEW DELHI: India and China are engaged in talks to resolve the border standoff and what is going on is “something confidential” between the two sides, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said on Thursday.

The Press Trust of India said the minister was asked specifically about the outcome of the ongoing talks during an online conclave. Mr. Jaishankar replied that the “discussions are going on and it is a work in progress”.

At the same time, he said there had been a troop build-up along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), and in many ways, it has no precedence in the recent past. India and China are locked in a military standoff in Ladakh for over five months.

“Discussions are on; what is going on is something confidential between us and the Chinese,” he said when the moderator at the Bloomberg India Economic Forum pressed the minister to give a clear status of the border situation.

“There is not very much that I am in a position to say in public. I certainly do not want to prejudge it,” he added.

Asked about the situation in Tibet as well as developments along the LAC, Mr Jaishankar said: “I do not think we should get into other issues which frankly has nothing to do with the situation currently in Ladakh.”

He said relations between India and China improved following the signing of a series of agreements since 1993 on maintaining peace and tranquility along the border.

“For the last 30 years, we have built a relationship predicated on peace and tranquillity along the border,” he said.

Published in Dawn, October 16th, 2020