It is good time to settle border row: China

BEIJING: The situation in the India-China border is not merely peaceful and stable, it is also favorable for the purpose of resolving the border dispute once for all time, the Chinese foreign ministry told TNN on Tuesday.

China also described reports of cross-border firing and other skirmishes as “inaccurate information”.

“The China-India relationship is currently enjoying stable developments, and the mutual trust between two sides is keeping growing. Therefore, we are facing a favorable situation in solving the border issue,” the foreign ministry said in reply to questions sent by TNN.

The two sides should continue to work for creating a “good atmosphere for the solution of (the) issue through negotiations, and avoid taking actions to make the situation become complicated,” the ministry said.

But it avoided a direct reply to a one of TNN’s questions: What is China doing to reassure India that it has no military ambitions on Arunachal Pradesh and other places along the border?

Sources in the Indian foreign ministry said Beijing was anxious about the uproar in the Indian media as it will make it all the more difficult for the two sides to enter into an amicable settlement. They do not think the central government in Beijing would have sent instructions to armed forces to create trouble on the border.

The Chinese foreign ministry’s view is that the problem has to do with improper reporting by the Indian media and not on the ground situation on the border.

“Enough of that. I have replied to this question earlier,” Jiang Yu, the Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman, said when a reporter asked about Indian reports about firing from the Chinese side of the border. “Some Indian media has been releasing inaccurate information. I wonder what their purpose is," she said.

In its written reply, the ministry said China has “devoted itself to maintaining peace and tranquility of the border area together with the Indian side” besides strictly adhering to the Agreement on the Maintenance of Peace and Tranquility along the Line of Actual Control in the China-India Border Areas in 1993 and the Agreement on Confidence Building Measures in the Military Field Along the Line of Actual Control in the China-India Border Areas signed in 1996.

“We do not see India as a rival and an enemy. We hope India will not see China in that light,” Sun Weidong, the deputy director general in the Asian department of the ministry asked in a rare meeting with Indian journalists and diplomats to discuss the subject. China’s growing economic strength will not make it a bully. Beijing has no designs on the territory of any country, he said.

Strategic and political analysts in Beijing say they are aghast at what they see as an aggressive anti-China campaign by the Indian media.

“There has been no usual development on the border. Why is the Indian media indulging in rumor mongering?” Chen Yongcheng, a former diplomat and Council Member of the China Foundation of International Studies, said.

A senior journalist with the People’s Daily said the Indian media should be careful not to create a situation in which there will be repercussions from the Chinese side. “What happens if we start talking about incursions from the Indian side? Such unfounded reports are not going to help anyone,” he said.

“Is this a good relationship or a bad one? I believe it is a good relationship,” and went on to explain that the relationship had a global and strategic importance because it involved 2.5 billion people,” Sun said.(TOI)