Beijing: Reacting sharply to Defence Minister AK Antony`s visit to Arunachal Pradesh for its statehood
celebrations, China on Saturday said India should refrain from
taking any action that could "complicate" the border issue.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei has "asked
India to work with China to maintain peace and stability in
border areas", state-run Xinhua news agency reported tonight.
Saying that China advocates seeking a fair and rational
solution through equal and friendly negotiations, Hong said,
Bejing`s stance on Sino-Indian border issues, including
disputes regarding the eastern section, has been consistent
and clear-cut.
"He also called on India to refrain from taking any action
that could complicate the issue", the news agency report said.
"Hong made the remark when asked to comment on a news
report of Indian officials participating in activities
organised by the so-called `Arunachal Pradesh region`", the
report said without directly referring to Antony`s
participation in the Silver Jubilee celebrations of the
Arunachal Pradesh at Itanagar on February 20.
In his speech at the statehood celebrations, Antony had
said "we are aware of the challenges which people living in
border areas face and it is our collective duty to ensure that
our border areas are developed as any other part of the
country".
Referring to the highly-sensitive nature of the state, he
said that the importance of a secure, non-porous international
border must continue to be the topmost priority area of the
Centre.
"Arunachalees have always been known to be fiercely
patriotic and yield to none in their love for the motherland,"
he had said.
China routinely take exception to any high level visits of
Indian officials to Arunachal Pradesh which it claims is a
part of Southern Tibet.
It was part of the discussion of the past 15 rounds of
border talks by the Special Representatives by the two
countries.
China also denies visa to people of Arunachal Pradesh as
part of its claim to the area.
In a recent case, visa was denied to a senior Indian Air
Force officer to visit China as part of defence delegation
prompting New Delhi to scale down the size of the delegation.
PTI
