Srinagar: Stating that Beijing is committed to maintaining stability along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh, the Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has told to a foreign audience that India and China need to “manage and control their differences” and not allow them to “become conflicts.”
“China is also willing to resolve differences with New Delhi through dialogue,” a Delhi based newspaper Hindustan Times quoted Wang as having said.
However, at the same time, Wang blamed India for “tension at the border.”
The problems between the two countries should be placed in “appropriate places” in bilateral ties, he said.
India, on Monday had said that it pre-empted “provocative military movements” by China to change the status quo along the LAC on the southern bank of Pangong Lake, a development that ‘widened the trust deficit’ between the two sides and put efforts to reduce tensions in vain.
Wang was speaking at the prestigious French Institute of International Relations in Paris on Monday, hours after the Indian army and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) had accused each other of ‘triggering a new bout of tension’ at the south bank of Pangong Tso and the Reqin pass near the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh.
Wang said the two governments should implement the consensus reached between Xi Jinping and Narendra Modi.
The two countries are “highly complementary” to each other, he said, adding, “China is willing to strengthen mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries to help India accelerate its own development.”
Earlier China, in a yet another move, demanded India to withdraw its armed forces personnel from China-India border in order to avoid escalation of tensions.
The move came after India said that fresh “provocative” military movements were made by Chinese army.
China later reportedly built a surface-to-air missile near a lake, which is a part of the Kailash-Mansarovar.
On Monday Indian army informed that Chinese troops “carried out provocative military movements to change the status quo” near Pangong Tso lake in Ladakh, on Saturday night and they were blocked by the Indian armed forces personnel manning the area, the government said.
A Brigade Commander level Flag Meeting was later held at Chushul to resolve the issues, as per the Government of India situation update.
The major flare-up, according to the reports, took place on the south bank of the Pangong Tso, which is of huge significance as no clashes have been reported here earlier.
The statement added that Indian Army is committed to maintaining peace and tranquillity through dialogue, but is also equally determined to protect its territorial integrity.
In Ladakh China has established high speed connectivity, including the setting up of 5G network near Demchok and fresh constructions at the Pangong Lake.
As New Delhi claims that both India and China will “continue to sincerely work towards complete disengagement” of armed forces personnel, talks aimed at resolving the military standoff along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh, has so far yielded no results.
A Chinese diplomat reacting to the standoff in Ladakh has said that the move is linked to the Indian government’s unilateral decision to scrap Article 370 in August last year.
The move changed the laws that prohibited Indians from buying land in Kashmir, and made the constitution of Jammu and Kashmir defunct, triggering fears of demographic change in the Muslim majority region of Kashmir.
When India scrapped Jammu and Kashmir’s special status on August 5 last year, the Chinese foreign ministry had issued two statements criticising the development, including one that focused on the splitting of the state into union territories.
This statement, while urging India to be “cautious” on the border issue and to avoid “actions that further complicate the border issue”, said: “China has always opposed India’s inclusion of Chinese territory in India’s administrative jurisdiction in the western part of the Sino-Indian border.”
This was a reference to the area in Ladakh that New Delhi claims but is controlled by Beijing.
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