India-China relations are currently abnormal, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar tells his Chinese counterpart Qin.

During his meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang at the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting on Thursday, Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar stated that the state of India-China relations is “abnormal.” The two foreign ministers discussed bilateral challenges, including peace and tranquillity in border areas, during the meeting, which was their first in-person meeting since Qin took office in December 2021.

Jaishankar described the current state of the bilateral relationship as abnormal, and said there are real problems that need to be discussed openly and candidly between the two nations. The thrust of the meeting was on the bilateral relationship, and the challenges, especially those related to peace and tranquillity in the border areas, he said.

Qin arrived in Delhi on Thursday morning to attend the G20 meeting hosted by India. In his address to the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting, he highlighted China’s peace plan to resolve the Ukraine conflict, emphasizing that global development and prosperity cannot be achieved without a peaceful and stable international environment. China will always stand on the side of peace, actively promote peace talks, and play a constructive role, he said.

In his remarks, Qin also said that the G20 must contribute to global development and prosperity, and that the G20 is the premier forum for international economic cooperation. Faced with a volatile international situation and rising global challenges, the G20 must rise to the occasion, enhance cooperation, and contribute its share to global development and prosperity, he said.

India has been maintaining that its ties with China cannot be normal unless there is peace in the border areas. The talk between the foreign ministers came nearly eight months after Jaishankar held a meeting with the then-Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi in Bali on the sidelines of a G20 meeting. At the hour-long meeting on July 7, Jaishankar conveyed to Wang the need for early resolution of all the outstanding issues in Eastern Ladakh.

In line with a decision taken at the 16th round of military talks, the two sides carried out disengagement from Patrolling Point 15 in the Gogra-Hotsprings area in September last year. But the face-off between the two of the planet’s biggest military forces lingered on in Demchok and Depsang regions though the Indian side pressed for completion of the disengagement in remaining friction points at the earliest.

On February 22, India and China held in-person diplomatic talks in Beijing and discussed proposals for disengagement in the remaining friction points along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh in an “open and constructive manner.” The meeting took place under the framework of the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on India-China Border Affairs (WMCC).

The eastern Ladakh border standoff erupted on May 5, 2020, following a violent clash in the Pangong lake area. The ties between the two countries nosedived significantly following the fierce clash in the Galwan Valley in June 2020 that marked the most serious military conflict between the two sides in decades.

As a result of a series of military and diplomatic talks, the two sides completed the disengagement process in 2021 on the north and south banks of the Pangong lake and in the Gogra area.

Jaishankar and Qin’s meeting comes amid the ongoing 34-month-long border row in eastern Ladakh, which has left the India-China relationship tense and volatile. Despite the disengagement in some areas, tensions continue to simmer in other areas, with both sides accusing the other of violating the agreements made in previous rounds of talks.