A day before meeting his Chinese counterpart on March 25, India’s external affairs minister S Jaishankar spoke at St Stephen’s College, his alma mater. While he mostly touched on the everyday implications of India’s foreign policy on citizens in general, he also briefly hinted at India’s current outlook on the China question: the nature of ties and, more significantly, challenges from India’s big northern neighbour.
Jaishankar was quick to identify that such contingencies could have a wide range of options as part of a prudent policy, but all of them should be backed by wide “deterrence” and “capability”. In more specific terms, he was clear that in its current ties with China, the diplomatic response from India cannot afford to lose sight of the security angle and military challenge seen in the last two years.
