Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who is currently on a visit to the US, has said "India cannot be pushed around" by China and that the relations between the two countries are "tough right now".
During a visit to the Stanford University campus in California on Wednesday night (local time), Rahul Gandhi was asked about the current state of India-China relations and how it's going to evolve in the next five to 10 years.
He replied, "It's tough right now. I mean they have occupied some of our territory. It's tough. It's not too easy (a relationship)." "India cannot be pushed around. That is not going to happen," the former Congress MP said.
Rahul Gandhi made the comments as India and China are locked in a lingering border standoff in eastern Ladakh for the past three years. Ties between the two neighbours soured following a deadly clash in Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh in June 2020.
India has maintained that its ties with China cannot be normal unless there's peace in the border area.
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Rahul Gandhi backed the Central government's stand on Russia, which invaded Ukraine in February last year.
"We have a relationship with Russia, we have certain dependencies on Russia. So, I would have a similar stance as the Government of India,"' he said, when asked if he supports India's neutral stance on Russia.
India has abstained from all the resolutions in UN bodies condemning Russia's actions in Ukraine. New Delhi has maintained that peaceful dialogue is the only way out to resolve the crisis.
Rahul Gandhi, however, said India has to "look for its own interest at the end of the day".
"India is a big enough country whereby it generally will have relationships with other countries. It's not so small and dependent that it will have a relationship with one and nobody else," he said.
"We will always have these types of relationships. We will have better relationships with some people, evolving relationships with others. So that balance is there," Rahul Gandhi said.
The Gandhi scion is in California on a three-city tour during which he will interact with the Indian diaspora and meet American lawmakers. Indian Overseas Congress chief Sam Pitroda earlier said Rahul Gandhi's visit was aimed at promoting shared values and a vision of "real democracy".
(with inputs from PTI)
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Source : Indiatoday
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