India and China need to adjust to each other's rise, says EAM S Jaishankar in first comment since Moscow pact

New Delhi: In his first comments since the Moscow pact, External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar on Thursday said that India and China need to adjust to each other's rise which has been the dominating factor in "diplomacy of both countries". Speaking at the world economic forum development impact summit, Jaishankar said that India and China need "to accommodate each other's rise".

He stated that both the countries will have "some common interest and many interests which are more individual or nationally centred and that process of how to adjust to each other when both are rising, to my mind is one of the big issues in the diplomacy of both the countries".

Calling "border issues" as "one part of that problem," he said, "We are going through a very unprecedented situation, and if one looks at in a longer-term, this is one facet of larger phenomenon" for which both "India and China have to sit down and find a solution".

Earlier in September, both Indian and Chinese foreign ministers had first in-person physical meeting amidst the more than the four-month-long tension at the Line of Actual Control (LAC). After the two-hour-long meet, both came out with a five-point joint statement calling for easing the situation at the LAC via dialogue, disengagement and maintaining the distance between the troops of two countries.

After the meet, the Corp Commanders of India and China met earlier this week and agreed that build up should be stopped. This was the sixth such meeting and both sides will soon meet for the next round of talks.

MEA spokesperson giving an update on the situation on Thursday said, "The two sides have also decided to strengthen the ground communication to avoid any further misunderstandings and misjudgments, stop sending more troops to the frontline, refrain from unilaterally changing the situation on the ground, and avoid taking any actions that may complicate the situation."

The next meeting of the Working Mechanism for Consultation & Coordination (WMCC) is expected to take place soon.