New Delhi: The border and future of ties cannot be separated, argued foreign minister S Jaishankar in his recently released book ‘The India Way’, reflecting India’s views that the current tensions along the LAC could impact Sino-Indian relationship. “For new ground to be broken, much more is needed on the positive side of the ledger. But it is equally important to guard against unilateral actions that increase volatility. While the centrality of the border factor has been long recognised, their activities and interests in global politics will now have a great relevance in the overall calculation,” cautioned Jaishankar in the chapter titled ‘The Nimzo-Indian Defence: Managing China’s Rise’ .The book was incidentally released ahead of the proposed dialogue between Jaishankar and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Moscow on the sidelines of the SCO Foreign Minister’s meet on September 9-10. Decisions made by India and China six decades ago still have repercussions today, recalled the minister. “From the Indian viewpoint, political and military events of that era contributed to a larger mistrust of China. That still colours public perceptions heavily and this legacy only gets oxygen from some controversies. As the power differential increased in the last two decades, these attitudes returned to haunt the relationship… Indian minds do not have the same ability to move on that the Chinese have shown in respect of their own conflicts with Russia or Vietnam.”“India is not the only country focussed on coming to terms with a significantly more powerful China. In fact, the entire world is doing so, each nation refashioning its terms of engagement in its own way…The key to a more settled Sino-Indian relationship is a greater acceptance by both countries of multipolarity and mutuality, building on a larger foundation of global rebalancing,” argued Jaishankar who started his career in Moscow and then went to serve as India’s envoy to Czech Republic, Singapore, China and USA and later as foreign secretary.In the same chapter, the minister, who was India’s longest- serving envoy to China, also referred to the Tibetan issue and its implication on the Sino-Indian ties. “Some of the difficulties in the modern relationship also emanate from China’s handling of Tibet and its reading of India’s reaction.”
