China on March 11 said it “strongly deplores” Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent visit to Arunachal Pradesh and has raised concerns with India, a sharp statement that is expected to be rebutted by New Delhi. The Chinese response was to a question from state media about the visit on March 9 by Mr. Modi, where he inaugurated a number of development projects, including the Sela Tunnel, an all-weather strategic link for Tawang and Kameng districts near the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
Built at a height of 13,000 feet, the 1.5 km Sela Tunnel that operationalised on the weekend is expected to aid development in border villages and allow for quicker deployment of military troops and hardware at the boundary with China, amidst continuing tensions and a four-year stand-off with the Chinese People’s Liberation Army.
A view of the ‘Sela Tunnel’ which was virtually inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Itanagar in Arunachal Pradesh, Saturday, March 9, 2024. | Photo Credit: PTI
When asked about the visit, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) spokesperson said that Beijing had made “solemn representations” to New Delhi about the Prime Minister’s visit, making a claim over Arunachal Pradesh that India has consistently rejected.
“India’s relevant moves only complicate the boundary question and disrupt the situation in the border areas between the two countries,” the Chinese MFA spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at a briefing in Beijing, referring to Arunachal Pradesh, which the Chinese call “Zangnan”, as Chinese territory. India, which has full control of the State, has always asserted the whole of Arunachal Pradesh as India’s sovereign territory.
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“China strongly deplores and firmly opposes the Indian leader’s visit to the East Section of the China-India boundary,” Mr. Wang added.
Referring to the China-India boundary dispute, where India and China’s Special Representatives have not met since the LAC stand-off began in April 2020, Mr. Wang said that it was “yet to be solved”. “India has no right to arbitrarily develop the area of Zangnan in China,” he claimed, in the strongest such statement on a visit by the PM, although China has protested visits to Arunachal Pradesh by high-level dignitaries in the past as well.
India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) did not immediately respond to the statement that comes close on the heels of another exchange over reports that India plans to increase troop levels at the LAC by freeing up about 10,000 soldiers for deployment. Reacting to a report by news agency Bloomberg, which was not formally confirmed by the Indian Ministry of Defence, the Chinese MFA had said sending more troops would not “help ease the situation” in the border areas or in “safeguarding tranquillity and safety”. On Thursday, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh addressed a conference and said that the Indian Army is equipped to give a “befitting reply” to anyone who “casts an evil eye” on the country’s borders.
Since the stand-off began in 2020, India and China have held 21 rounds of senior military commander talks on the LAC, and several rounds of talks of the multi-ministerial Working Mechanism on Consultation and Coordination (WMCC) on border affairs, and negotiated a détente on five of seven friction points along the boundary in Ladakh.
