India and China were involved in another verbal slugfest with the former slamming Beijing for opposing Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu’s recent visit to Arunachal Pradesh and underlining that the state is an integral and inalienable part of India.
Rejecting remarks by the Chinese foreign ministry on Naidu’s visit, the Indian ministry of external affairs said Indian leaders routinely travelled to Arunachal Pradesh as they do to any other state of India. “Objecting to the visit of Indian leaders to a state of India does not stand to reason and understanding of the Indian people,” MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said.
The strong and quick rebuttal also had India recalling that the current situation along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the western sector of the India-China border areas had been caused by unilateral attempts of the Chinese side to alter the status quo in violation of 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,” said the Indian official.
Talks between the two countries to resolve the military stand-off in eastern Ladakh seemed to have collapsed earlier this week with both sides blaming each other for the impasse. Claiming Arunachal as a part of south Tibet, China has in the past too objected to visits by Indian leaders there.
