(TibetanReview.net, Mar12’24) — India has on Mar 12 pointedly rejected China’s criticism and protest over Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the country’s Tibet-border state of Arunachal Pradesh and his inauguration of a strategic tunnel there. China claims the state is part of its territory and calls it “Zangnan” (Southern Tibet) on the basis of its illegal annexation of Tibet in the 1950’s.
Modi visited the state on Mar 9 to inaugurate infrastructure projects, including a tunnel that will provide all-weather connectivity to the strategically located border area of Tawang, the birthplace of Tibet’s 6th Dalai Lama and which is especially coveted by China.
The tunnel is expected to ensure faster and smoother movement of troops in the frontier region.
The day saw Modi launch several projects of the Central government for the Northeast in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections, including the strategic Sela Tunnel project, which is built at an altitude of 13,000 feet and connects Tezpur in Assam to Tawang District in Arunachal Pradesh. It is billed as the longest bi-lane road tunnel in the world at such an altitude, according to the PTI news agency Mar 11.
“Objecting to such visits or India’s developmental projects does not stand to reason,” said India’s Ministry of External Affairs in a statement. “We reject the comments made by the Chinese side regarding the visit of the Prime Minister to Arunachal Pradesh. Indian leaders visit Arunachal Pradesh from time to time, as they visit other States of India,” it added.
The state has always been “an integral and inalienable part of India,” Reuters Mar 12 further quoted Randhir Jaiswal, India’s foreign ministry spokesperson, as saying.
“Further, it will not change the reality that the state of Arunachal Pradesh was, is, and will always be an integral and inalienable part of India.”
“Chinese side has been made aware of this consistent position on several occasions,” he has added.
Jaiswal’s remarks came a day after Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said Beijing was firmly opposed to Modi’s activities in the region, adding his government had lodged a diplomatic protest with India.
“Zangnan is China’s territory. The Chinese government never recognizes, and resolutely opposes the so-called Arunachal Pradesh illegally set up by India,” China’s official chinadaily.com.cn Mar 12 quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin as saying.
Voicing China’s strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition to Modi’s move, Wang said the border issue between the two countries is not yet resolved, the report said.
“The relevant move will only complicate the issue and impose a negative influence on the situation in the border area,” Wang has added.
As a result of China’s occupation of Tibet, the nuclear-armed neighbours now share a 3,440km (2,100 miles) frontier, much of it poorly demarcated. Movement between the two sides used to be largely free when Tibet was independent.
Border dispute, between the two sides, and their bilateral ties nosedived when Chinese troops launched a night raid on the Indian side in Ladakh in Mid-Jun 2020, resulting in the death of 20 Indian soldiers and at least four Chinese troops in the ensuing clash which did not involve the use of firearms.
Both militaries have fortified positions and deployed extra troops and equipment along the border since, having been uneasy neighbours for decades after a bloody border war in 1962.