Congress Slams Jaishankar's Visit to China, Rahul Gandhi Says 'EAM Destroying India's Foreign Policy'

New Delhi: A day after external affairs minister S. Jaishankar visit to China wherein he described relations between India and China as having made “good progress” towards normalisation, the opposition Congress targeted Jaishankar and accused him of “destroying India’s foreign policy.”

“I guess the Chinese foreign minister will come and apprise Modi about recent developments in China-India ties. The EAM is now running a full blown circus aimed at destroying India’s foreign policy,” Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi posted on X on Tuesday (July 15).

Earlier, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh issued a statement and asked when Jaishankar and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold a detailed debate on China in the parliament.

“In his 14 July, 2025, meeting with China’s Vice President Han Zheng, external affairs minister S. Jaishankar stated that the India-China bilateral relationship “has been steadily improving since the meeting between Prime Minister Modi and President Xi Jinping in Kazan last October” and that “continued normalisation of our ties can produce mutually beneficial outcomes. Perhaps we should remind the EAM of recent developments in bilateral ties since the PM’s last tête-à-tête with President Xi,” said Ramesh in the statement.

“China gave total support to Pakistan during Operation Sindoor, turning it into a testing ground for network-centric warfare and weapon systems such as the J-10C fighter and PL-15E air-to-air missile and assorted drones,” said the Congress leader.

Here is the INC's statement on the meetings that the External Affairs Minister Dr. Jaishankar had with senior Chinese leaders in Beijing yesterday - a city he is visiting after five years. pic.twitter.com/P9jC0GUzti

— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) July 15, 2025

He added that China has restricted exports to India of critical materials like rare-earth magnets, speciality fertilisers, and tunnel-boring machines for infrastructure projects. Important sectors like telecoms, pharmaceuticals, and electronics remain critically dependent on Chinese imports, even as the trade deficit with China reaches a record $99.2 billion, said Ramesh.

“Hundreds of Chinese workers have departed from India’s Foxconn facilities, potentially impeding India’s attempt to become an alternative global supplier of Apple smart phones. Indian patrols continue to require Chinese concurrence to reach their patrolling points in Depsang, Demchok, and Chumar. “Buffer zones” in Galwan, Hot Spring, and Pangong Tso lie predominantly within the Indian claim line, preventing our troops from accessing points to which they had unrestricted access before April 2020,” said the Ramesh in the statement.

Ramesh added that that the “kowtowing to China is unsurprising given the EAM’s beliefs”. He added that two years ago, Jaishankar had said in an interview that China is a bigger economy and can India as a smaller economy pick up a fight with the bigger economy?

“His boss, the Prime Minister of the laal aankh, had similarly given a public clean chit to the Chinese with his statement of June 19, 2020, when he said, “Na koi hamari seema mein ghus aaya hai, na hi koi ghusa hua hai.” – a blatant lie that the Chinese used globally to cover up their infringement of Indian territory and which hurt our negotiating power immensely,” said Ramesh in the statement.

The statement added that the Congress hopes that the Prime Minister will finally agree to a discussion on China and break the five-year drought in the forthcoming Monsoon session of Parliament.

“If the Parliament could debate the border situation in November 1962 when the Chinese invasion was at its peak, why cannot we discuss now – especially given that both sides appear to want renormalisation (albeit without necessarily restoring the May 2020 status quo on the Line of Actual Control in Eastern Ladakh)?” said Ramesh’s statement.

“It is essential to build a national consensus on the critical security and economic challenges arising from China’s rise as the world’s leading manufacturing power and its position as the second-largest economy, one that may well surpass the United States within a decade,” it added.

Jaishankar had arrived in Beijing on Monday (July 14) to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) foreign ministers’ meeting, with several bilateral engagements on the sidelines.

His first official interaction was a delegation-level meeting with Chinese Vice President Han Zheng, followed by talks with foreign minister Wang Yi.

In his opening remarks to Wang, Jaishankar said that recent progress over the past nine months had been premised on the resolution of border tensions and maintaining peace and tranquillity along the Line of Actual Control. He noted that the “fundamental basis” for the smooth development of bilateral ties remains peace on the border.

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