(TibetanReview.net, Oct14’21) – India again had to assert Oct 13 that Arunachal Pradesh is an “integral and inalienable” part of its territory when China criticized the visit of its Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu to the northeastern border state. Beijing’s claims that the state is part of southern Tibet and therefore its territory.
India took to recognize Tibet as an autonomous region of the People’s Republic of China with a 1954 trade agreement with China. However, the McMahon Line which demarcates this state’s international border is based on a territorial agreement involving the 1914 government of independent Tibet, along with British India and the Republic of China. Communist China does not accept this line.
“We have noted the comments made today by the Chinese official spokesperson. We reject such comments. Arunachal Pradesh is an integral and inalienable part of India,” the PTI news agency Oct 13 quote India’s External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi as saying.
Bagchi was reported to have made his remark in response to a question on comments by spokesperson Zhao Lijian of the Chinese foreign ministry just hours earlier, objecting to Naidu’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh over the weekend.
“The Chinese government never recognises the so-called Arunachal Pradesh established unilaterally and illegally by the Indian side, and is firmly opposed to the Indian leaders’ visits to the area concerned,” Zhao was quoted as saying when asked about Naidu’s visit.
Calling the issue a major concern, Zhao has added, “We urge the Indian side to earnestly respect China’s major concerns, stop taking any action that would complicate and expand the boundary issue, and refrain from undermining mutual trust and bilateral relations. It should instead take real concrete actions to maintain peace and stability in the China-India border areas and help bring the bilateral relations back on to the track of sound and steady development.”
But India brushed aside Zhao’s claims. “Indian leaders routinely travel to the state of Arunachal Pradesh as they do to any other state of India. Objecting to the visit of Indian leaders to a state of India does not stand to reason and understanding of Indian people,” Bagchi has said.
Referring to the ongoing dispute between the two sides along occupied Tibet’s border with India, Bagchi has said, “Indian leaders routinely travel to the state of Arunachal Pradesh as they do to any other state of India. Objecting to the visit of Indian leaders to a state of India does not stand to reason and understanding of Indian people.”
He has also referred to the failed 13th round of military talks on the 17-month eastern Ladakh standoff on Oct 10, saying, “Further, as we have mentioned earlier, the current situation along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Western Sector of the India-China border areas has been caused by unilateral attempts of the Chinese side to alter the status quo in violation of the bilateral agreements.”
China claims up to 90,000 sq km in Arunachal Pradesh in the eastern sector, while India sees China as illegally occupying 38,000 sq km in Aksai Chin in the western sector, noted the indianexpress.com Oct 14.
