OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT New Delhi, Nov. 11: Beijing today rejected Delhi’s position that Arunachal Pradesh belongs to India, saying China had never recognised the “illegal” McMahon Line that functions as the eastern border between the two countries.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Qin Gang accused Delhi of ignoring “historical facts” as he “deeply regretted” external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee’s comment on Sunday that Arunachal was an integral part of India and that China was “aware” of it.
“China and India have never officially settled demarcation of borders,” PTI quoted Qin as saying at a regular bi-weekly news briefing in Beijing. “The current Chinese government, as well as previous ones, has never recognised the illegal McMahon Line…. India knows this.”
India refrained from issuing a formal statement but a foreign ministry official said: “What the foreign minister had said is our stated position; there is no need to add anything to it. The Chinese are entitled to have their view on any issue.”
This is the second time in about a week that the Chinese have taken exception to comments by Mukherjee. Beijing last week rejected an alleged remark about a “China threat” by Mukherjee — as attributed to him in a section of the media — during a speech he made to the National Defence College on November 3.
However, the Indian foreign ministry spokesperson denied Mukherjee had made such a comment. “At no point in his speech did the minister use the word ‘threat’ to describe China.”
Mukherjee had said on November 3: “What are the immediate challenges that we face? To my mind, the foremost among these would be to cope with the rise of China.”
China reacted by saying the two countries had agreed not to consider each other a threat and that Beijing posed no threat or security risk to any Asian nation.
The foreign ministry spokesperson, however, said Mukherjee had “recognised that there is enhanced engagement with China and we have today a completely different situation. Economic development has given both countries new capabilities and it is our belief that there is sufficient space for both India and China to grow together and build a cooperative relationship”.
In his speech on Sunday — at Tawang in Arunachal — too Mukherjee had “underlined” that India and China “have different perceptions on the question of boundary”, a ministry source said.
The McMahon Line is a line on the map that harks back to the Simla Convention between Britain and Tibet in 1914.
Beijing reloads Arunachal gun
Comment: Can the hon'ble Minister for External Affairs enlighten the Chinese abroad when he at home is at loss to resolve the armed forces pay anomalies created and complicated by the Bureaucrats and still dangling in the misty Himalayan air?
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