Border with China has become ‘more alive’: Jaishankar at HT Leadership Summit

S Jaishankar says India missed the bus on industrialisation in the 1980s while China pushed ahead with modernisation.

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External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar on Saturday said that the border with China has become “more alive in a way” and added that India's capability along the frontier has significantly improved.

Alluding to Galwan, Jaishankar, speaking at the 24th Hindustan Times Leadership Summit in New Delhi, said: “Our capability to sustain ourselves and deploy forces along that border has improved. I would say it has improved in a very significant way.” Track the HTLS 2026 live here

The bilateral ties between the two countries had plummeted to a new low in 2020 following violent clash at Galwan Valley in June that left 20 Indian soldiers and an unspecified number of Chinese troops.

Jaishankar added: “When it comes to the border, I would make this point, border infra was neglected till about a decade ago.”

He said that India and China’s economies were of the same stature in the 1980s but while Beijing pushed towards industrialisation, New Delhi “missed the bus”.

“When Rajiv Gandhi went to China in 1988, India and China’s economies were the same size. But China in the 1980s made a huge push towards modernization and industrialization. I'm sorry to say India in the 1980s simply missed the bus,” he said.

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