Respect territorial sovereignty, India to China

Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar also criticised Pakistan for ‘blocking’ SAARC, saying the regional grouping has become ‘ineffective’ due to insecurity of one member nation. 

Calling terrorism the most ‘pervasive and serious’ threat to international security, he rued lack of coherence in dealing with the menace globally, adding pressures to reform the UN so that it can deal with major challenges effectively will only grow with each passing day. 

Talking about the China-Pakistan-Economic Corridor (CPEC) which passes through Pakistan occupied-Kashmir, Jaishankar, addressing the Raisina Dialogue, envisioned as the country’s flagship conference on geopolitics and geo-economics, said China should respect India’s territorial sovereignty as Beijing was ‘very sensitive’ to matters relating to its own sovereignty. 

“China is a country which is very sensitive on matters concerning its sovereignty. So, we would expect that they would have some understanding of other people’s sensitivity on their sovereignty,” he said, noting there was no sign of any reflection on India’s concerns over CPEC project. 

The Foreign Secretary’s comments came a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a clear message to China, said both sides should show sensitivity and respect for each other’s core concerns and interests. 

Modi had on Tuesday said only by respecting the sovereignty of countries involved, can regional connectivity corridors fulfil their promise and avoid ‘differences and discord’. 

“What we are trying to do is to convince China that our rise is not harmful to China’s rise just as China’s rise need not be to India’s rise,” Jaishankar told the gathering.