BEIJING: Taking a strong note of remarks by the Indian army chief aboutChina and the Donglong border area, a Chinese Foreign Ministry’sspokesperson Monday said the negative remarks by a senior Indian officialwere against the consensus reached between the heads of the state of twocountries and it could not help to preserve tranquility and peace of theborder areas.
“The nonconstructive remarks by the senior Indian official not only goagainst the consensus reached between the two heads of state but do notconform to the efforts made by the two sides to improve and developbilateral relations,” Lu Kang said during his regular press briefing.
Responding to a question about the statement of Indian army chief in whichhe said China was a strong country but India was not a weak country andadmitted that Indian army entered the territory which did not belong toIndian during Donglong standoff last year, he said the Indian army chiefremarks could not help to preserve the tranquility and peace of the borderareas.
He asked the Indian military to learn lessons, abide by the historicalconventions between the two countries and earnestly uphold peace andtranquility of border area besides creating a sound atmosphere for positivedevelopment of China-India bilateral relations.
“We require from the Indian military to learn lessons, abide by thehistorical conventions, earnestly uphold the peace and tranquility of theborder area and create a sound atmosphere for positive development ofbilateral relations,” he added.
Lu Kang remarked that China-India relations had witnessed some twists andturns in the past one year and said in the BRICS leaders’ summit meeting inlast September, the two heads of state had reached some important consensusto properly handle the differences and promote bilateral relations back tothe track of sound and steady development.
Recently, the two sides had enhanced dialogue and consultations and thebilateral relations had showed sound momentum of improvement anddevelopment, he added. Terming China and India as important neighbors, heobserved that both the countries were at the critical stage of nationaldevelopment and rejuvenation.
“The two countries should enhance strategic communication, eliminatestrategic doubts and conduct strategic cooperation,” he added.
Lu Kang urged the Indian side to follow the important consensus reachedbetween the two leaders and do more things to preserve peace andtranquility on border areas and refrain from doing the things which maycomplicate the situation.
He also called upon India to constructively handle the relevant affairs andpromote sound and steady development of the bilateral relations, adding,“This is in common interest of the whole region and also serves theinterest of Indian side.”
The spokesperson also pointed out that the remarks of the army chief onceagain showed that the illegal trespass of the Indian border troops wasquite clear cut in nature. He, however, made it clear that the Donglongbelonged to China and Sikkim section of the China-India boundary had beendelaminated by the historical convention.
“Donglong is China’s territory and China will continue to exercise itssovereignty rights in Donglong area in accordance with historicalconventions and steadfastly uphold its territorial sovereignty,” he added.To yet another question, he said the patrolling and holding by China’sborder guards in the Donglang area was based on the stipulation ofhistorical conventions, exercising its sovereign rights and safeguardingthe territorial sovereignty.
“As I said just now, we hope India can learn from it and avoid therecurrence of some incidents that took place last year,” he added. He saidthe relations between the two sides had also shown signs of improvement inoverall development for some time.
“I believe everybody can feel that against this background, the remark madeby the top Indian military official is inconsistent with the spirit of theimportant consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries and thecurrent efforts of both China and India to improve the general trend of therelations between the two parties and the promotion of strategiccooperation is also incompatible,” he added. “We believe such remarks arenot conducive to the joint efforts of the two countries to maintain peaceand stability across the border and to India itself,” he concluded. –AGENCIES