'India strives for relationship that is built on mutual sensitivity, respect'

Washington: India strives to have a relationship with China that is built on mutual sensitivity, respect and interest, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has said as he asserted that the betterment and strengthening of the Indo-Pacific is a shared objective of New Delhi and

Washington, amid Beijing's growing military muscle-flexing in the region.

China, which has territorial disputes with many countries in the strategic Indo-Pacific, has been opposing the US' proactive policy specifically in the disputed South China Sea.

"We continue to strive for a relationship with China, but one that is built on mutual sensitivity, mutual respect and mutual interest," Jaishankar told a group of Indian reporters on Wednesday as he concluded his four-day visit to Washington and held talks with top US officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin.

The relations between India and China have soured over the incursion by Chinese troops in eastern Ladakh in May 2020, leading to a prolonged military standoff that is still unresolved.

India has made it clear to China that peace and tranquillity along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) were key for the overall development of the bilateral ties.

Responding to a question on how India and the US are planning to handle a belligerent China, Jaishankar said the two countries have a shared objective of betterment and strengthening of the Indo-Pacific region.

"Where Indian and US interests converge, and they do, I think, is on the stability and the security, the progress, the prosperity, the development of the Indo Pacific. Because you have seen, even in the case of Ukraine, a war fought a great distance away, has the potential, has the capability of actually creating turbulence across the world in terms of implications for the daily lives of people," he said.

Jaishankar said the world today is very globalised, extremely interlocked, and interdependent.

"It is therefore to say that we have skin in the game is an understatement. I think we have vital stakes today in ensuring that the larger region is stable, that it is secured; that there is cooperation and that the focus is on the right things," he said.

"To my view, what we have seen in recent years, is an India whose interests and inclinations extend sufficiently eastwards into the Pacific and the United States, which is open enough to work flexibly and comfortably with partners going beyond the orthodox limitations in the past of treaties and alliances," he said.