India, China spar over Venkaiah Naidu's Arunachal visit

While India cited routine visit to an Indian state, Chinese government cited 'unilateral and illegal' establishment of the state and opposed the vice-president's visit

Venkaiah Naidu: File picture

Anita Joshua   |   TT  |   New Delhi   |  14.10.21: India and China on Wednesday verbally sparred after Beijing objected to Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu visiting Arunachal Pradesh.

India said that “objecting to the visit of Indian leaders to a state of India does not stand to reason and understanding of Indian people”.

In Beijing, asked for a response to Naidu’s Arunachal visit, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said: “China’s position on the China-India boundary issue is consistent and clear-cut. The Chinese government has never recognised the so-called ‘Arunachal Pradesh’ established unilaterally and illegally by the Indian side and firmly opposes the Indian leader’s visit to this above-mentioned area.”

Reacting to this, external affairs ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said: “We have noted the comments made today by the Chinese official spokesperson. We reject such comments. Arunachal Pradesh is an integral and inalienable part of India.

“Indian leaders routinely travel to the state of Arunachal Pradesh as they do to any other state of India.”

On China’s effort to blame India afresh for the escalation of tensions across the Line of Actual Control, he said: “Further, as we have mentioned earlier, the current situation along the LAC in the western sector of the India-China border areas has been caused by unilateral attempts of Chinese side to alter the status quo in violation of the bilateral agreements.

“Therefore, we expect the Chinese side to work towards early resolution of the remaining issues along the LAC in eastern Ladakh while fully abiding by bilateral agreements and protocols rather than trying to link unrelated issues.”

The Chinese spokesperson had urged India “to earnestly respect China’s major concerns, stop taking any action that would complicate and expand the boundary issue, and refrain from undermining mutual trust and bilateral relations”.

Further, China had said, India should take “real actions” to maintain peace and stability in the border areas and help bring bilateral relations back on the track of sound and steady development.