Beijing: Blaming India and its multi-party political system for the delay in solving the vexed Sino-India border issue, Chinese state media on Wednesday said the two sides were "far away" from reaching a "fair" agreement due to "suspicion and distrust", which is also impeding progress in bilateral ties.
Though the 15th round of border talks were concluded last month leaving a "good trend" in the bilateral relations, some contradictions and issues are still severely disturbing the normal development of the China-India relations, a write up in the People`s Daily online said today.
"The first issue is the China-India border negotiation. China and India have held 15 meetings of special representatives for the border issue.
"Although the meetings have made many positive
achievements, it is still far away from reaching a fair, just
and reasonable agreement," the write up in the opinion page
said.
The main barrier still comes from the Indian side as
Indian media insist that the border line between China and
India should be based on the "McMahon Line" left by British
colonists, it said also India believes that the border dispute
between the two countries covers not only the eastern region
of 90,000 square km but also 30,000 sq km in the western
region.
"This wrong argument, which totally disregards the
history, still has supporters in India," it said.
Yet another reason that delaying the agreement was
India`s multi-party political system as well its society which
is extremely complicated, it said.
"Various Indian political parties have different
understandings on the China-India border issue, and therefore,
it is hard for them to reach an agreement on the issue," it
said.
The Daily also referred to India`s concerns about China-Pakistan ties.
"There are still misunderstandings about the China-
Pakistan relations. Since the beginning of the 21st century,
the Indian government for the most part believes that China
has adopted an "equal justice" policy in handling
India-Pakistan relations, not only attaching importance to
developing relations with Pakistan, but also paying attention
to the bilateral relations with India," it said.
There were concerns about Gwadar port and Chinese navy
coming to India`s door step and "inflow of nuclear technology
from China to Pakistan", it said.
Referring to India`s concerns about Chinese troops in
Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK), it said they were the
personnel sent by China to assist Pakistan in the earthquake
relief work.
"The China threat theories like these are quite popular
in India. Indian public opinion still holds that at present
China is looking for a balance in relations between India and
Pakistan to seek the best interest in South Asia and that once
the India-Pakistan situation has changed, China will give full
support to Pakistan and use Pakistan to curb and combat
India," it said.
"Through the above contradictions and problems between
China and India, the information passed to the people is that
China and India do not have enough mutual trust.
"Suspicion and distrust are still the biggest obstacles
to developing friendly relations between China and India," it
said.
The governments of China and India should both "stand on
a higher level, and take a broader perspective, to enhance
mutual trust and eliminate the problems and give full play to
the wisdom and talents of the people of China and India, to
creatively draw a beautiful blueprint for the final settlement
of the China-Indian conflicts and problems," it said.
PTI
