BEIJING – Indian External Affairs Minister gets a big snub from China onOccupied Kashmir move in his “emergency visit” to Beijing as China rejectedIndian government decision of creating new territories.
China stuck to position of the creation of Ladakh Union Territory, withChinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi telling his Indian counterpart SJaishankar that the move “involves Chinese territory”.
Wang told Jaishankar that the Indian government’s announcement of theestablishment of the Ladakh Union Territory, “which involves Chineseterritory, has posed a challenge to China’s sovereignty and violated thetwo countries’ agreement on maintaining peace and stability in the borderregion”, India Today has reported.
Jaishankar has conveyed to Wang that the creation of Ladakh has “noimplication for either the external boundaries of India or the Line ofActual Control (LAC) with China” and that “India was not raising anyadditional territorial claims”.
“India’s move is neither valid to China nor will change the status quo -that China exercises sovereignty and administrative jurisdiction over theterritories involved”, the Global Times quoted Wang as saying, quoting aChinese Foreign Ministry statement.
Wang said China was concerned about the current Kashmir situation and theescalating India-Pakistan conflict. “India’s move to end the constitutionalstatus of Jammu Kashmir will change the status quo of the disputed area andresult in regional tensions,” he added.
China believes any unilateral action that may complicate the situation inKashmir should not be taken, Wang said at the meeting.
The paper noted that though Jaishankar’s visit was predetermined, “manyobservers called it an ’emergency visit’ because it came after PakistanForeign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi made an emergency visit to ChinaFriday evening and briefed Wang on Pakistan’s views, position andcountermeasures on Kashmir”.
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The state-run daily quoted “Chinese observers” to say that “India’s movewas reckless. They noted that Kashmir is a powderkeg filled withterritorial disputes and ethnic and regional conflicts. They added that thesituation is not India’s ‘internal affairs’.”
“New Delhi’s unilateral decision will bite India back in the future,”warned Chinese experts.
“Scraping (sic) Kashmir’s special status is just a carnival of nationalism.If the Indian government continues hyping this mood, it will become moreand more radical and will surely backfire,” it said, quoting Zhao Gancheng,Director of the Center for Asia-Pacific Studies at the Shanghai Institutefor International Studies.
“A radical and nationalistic India won’t be embraced by Asia,” Zhao toldthe Global Times.
“India’s rise needs a peaceful neighborhood, and provoking Pakistan is nota good way to solve it,” Zhao said.
