NEW DELHI: India’s border with China has become “more alive” and requires a much greater commitment of Indian troops on a sustained basis, EAM S Jaishankar said Saturday as he listed New Delhi’s policy approach to enhance infrastructure along the frontier.Jaishankar also said that India has bolstered its military capabilities along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) since the deadly clashes in eastern Ladakh’s Galwan Valley in 2020.His remarks came amid ongoing efforts by New Delhi and Beijing to normalise ties that came under severe strain following the over four-year border face-off in eastern Ladakh.“Just think about the last few years. How often do you now read – a new tunnel has been built, some new bridge has been built, another airfield has been commissioned. You’re getting this news with greater and greater frequency,” he said.“What has happened today is the border with China has become more alive in a way. It has required a much greater commitment of troops on a sustained basis.”After over four years of frosty ties over the eastern Ladakh military standoff, India and China began to repair relations following a meeting between PM Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping in the Russian city of Kazan in Oct 2024.
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“I would say when it comes to the border, I would honestly make this point, and I think there’s a lot of data and evidence to back it up, which is that the border infrastructure was really neglected till about a decade ago. I mean, people spoke about it, people drew up plan,” Jaishankar said.He added India’s capability to “deploy” its troops on that border has seen “a very marked” improvement.He also responded to a question on views about economic asymmetry between the two countries. “Remember, when around the time when Rajiv Gandhi went to China in 1988, the Indian and Chinese economies were about the same size,” he said. “…China, in the 1980s particularly, made a huge push towards modernisation and industrialisation. India in the 1980s simply missed the bus. Now, in the 1990s, we did some corrections, reforms, but we did not carry through the reforms sector by sector and keep building and raising it,” he said.“I don’t want you to think of it as a political point,” he said and listed efforts by the Modi govt in the areas of manufacturing and industrialisation.
