Conflict

Put border dispute at appropriate position, focus on long term ties: China to India

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New Delhi: India should focus on the long-term development of ties with China and put the border dispute in an “appropriate position”, the Chinese foreign ministry said, adding that New Delhi should work with Beijing to bring ties back on the tracks of steady development.

The Chinese foreign ministry added that Beijing was committed to maintaining peace at the border, but also determined to safeguard the country’s territorial integrity.

China and India are maintaining close communication through diplomatic and military channels, ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said.

Wang was responding to Indian ambassador Vikram Misri’s recent statement that there’s a tendency in some quarters to sweep the situation at the border “under the carpet” and characterize it as just a trivial issue.

Misri was speaking via video link at a high-level India-China dialogue where he made it clear that sweeping the problem under the carpet was “inadvisable”.

“In fact, it would be tantamount to running away from the problem and in a direction opposite to that where the promise of our closer development partnership lies,” Misri had told a gathering, which included the Chinese ambassador to India, Sun Weidong.

Asked to comment on Misri’s assertion, Wang Wenbin reiterated China’s often-repeated public position on the border dispute.

“On the issue of China-India boundary situation, China’s position is consistent and clear. We are committed to maintaining peace and stability in the border areas and we are firmly determined to safeguard our territorial sovereignty and security,” he said.

“Recently the two sides have maintained communications through diplomatic and military channels. On the basis of disengagement in the Galwan Valley and the Pangong Tso regions, the two sides exchanged in depth and in a candid manner, opinions on resolving the remaining issue in the Western section of the boundary,” he added.

“We hope India will meet China halfway and will focus on the bigger picture of long term development of bilateral relations, put the boundary at an appropriate position and work to bring relations back to the track of steady and sound development,” Wang said.

India, he said, should take concrete measures to safeguard peace and tranquility along the border and work to bring bilateral relations back on the tracks of sound and steady development.

 

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