India should control its border troops, says Chinese military

HT, Dec 28, 2017 , Beijing: The Chinese military on Thursday held up the resolution of the Doklam standoff as a key achievement in international cooperation this year even as it called on India to “strictly control” its troops and implement agreements to maintain peace and stability on the border.

The management of “hotspot issues” such as the Doklam standoff and the situation in South China Sea were among the highlights of China’s international military cooperation in 2017, defence spokesman Col Ren Guoqiang told a media briefing.

With its unified deployment, the military “resolutely” safeguarded China’s sovereignty and security interests, and “played its due role in the handling of the hotspot issues such as the Sino-Indian confrontation in the Donglang (Doklam) area and safeguarded China’s rights and interests in the South China Sea,” he said.

Asked about the Chinese military’s views on its relations with its Indian counterpart in 2018 against the backdrop of the Doklam standoff, Ren sought to place the onus for better relations on the Indian side.

“We hope the Indian side can earnestly implement the relevant agreements reached between the two sides on the border issue and strictly control its border defence troops and do more for the positive development of China-India military-to-military relationship,” he was quoted as saying by PTI.

The standoff at Doklam near the Sikkim border began in mid-June when Indian troops intervened to stop the construction of a road by the People’s Liberation Army in a region controlled by China but claimed by Bhutan. India acted as the road posed a risk to the narrow corridor connecting the northeastern states with the rest of the country.

The standoff ended on August 28 after both sides agreed to pull back their troops and China halted work on the road.

The Special Representatives for talks on the border issue – National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Chinese state councillor Yang Jiechi – met in Delhi on December 22, the first round of discussions held after the standoff.

Both sides stressed the importance of maintaining peace and stability along the border at the talks, Ren said.

“As far as we know both sides have agreed that it is important to maintain peace stability along the India-China border and create favourable conditions for further development of the bilateral relationship, which has provided a good environment and good momentum for the continued enhancement of China and India relationship,” he said.

Referring to military-to-military relations, Ren said it is important to have strategic communications and push forward the healthy development of ties between the two militaries.

“We hope Indian side walk towards the same direction as the Chinese side and both sides can push forward the development of the relationship and jointly maintain peace and stability along the China-India border, which is in the interest of both sides,” he said.

Asked about the recent crash of an Indian military drone on the Chinese side in Sikkim sector, Ren declined to go into details and did not say whether parts of the UAV recovered by Chinese troops had been handed back to India.

“It is our position that India should have learnt lesson from the incident,” he said.

China made a formal protest about the incident on December 7, saying the Indian drone “intruded” into its airspace. India has said the spy plane crashed after developing a technical problem while on a routine training flight.