LONDON: In a prickly interaction with a moderator, S Jaishankar, Indian External Affairs Minister, remarked in a panel discussion at the annual Munich Security Conference that ties with China are going through a very difficult phase.

Answering a question on the Sino-India situation, the minister explained: “It’s a problem we are having with China; and the problem is this: that for 45 years there was peace, there was stable border management, there were no military casualties from 1975. That changed because we had agreements with China not to bring military forces to the border, we call it border but it’s a line of actual control, and the Chinese violated those agreements. Now the state of the border will determine the state of the relationship. That’s natural. So obviously relations with China are going through a very difficult phase.”

Asked if the relationship with the West had improved as a result of the confrontation with China, he replied: “My relations with the West were quite decent before June 2020.”

The questioner pointed out: “A recent poll, I think it was published just last week, indicates that on this occasion of the 30th anniversary of ASEAN-India relations which we celebrate this year, levels of trust between ASEAN countries and India are fairly low. India ranks fifth, after Japan, the United States, the EU and China; and only 16.6 per cent of respondents in this poll have said that they have confidence in India.”