China objects to India road plan along border
India is planning to build a road network along McMohan line
New Delhi: China on Wednesday reacted sharply to India’s plans to construct a road network along the McMahon line in Arunachal Pradesh and said that it hopes India will not take any action which may complicate the situation before a final settlement is reached on the border dispute.
The warning came, even as the India-China talks on the border mechanisms will take place in New Delhi on Thursday. The meeting of the Border Affairs Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination will be held on Thursday to discuss various issues pertaining to the maintenance of peace and tranquillity in the border areas and the recent standoff in Ladakh between troops of both sides following the Chinese incursion a few weeks ago is expected to figure prominently.
“We still need to verify the specifics. The boundary issue between China and India is left by the colonial past. We need to deal with this issue properly,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lie told a media briefing, according to news agency reports from Beijing.
He was reacting to reported comments by the Union minister of state for home affairs Kiren Rijiju stating that plans are afoot to construct a road network along the international boundary from Mago-Thingbu in Tawang to Vijaynagar in Changlang district of Arunachal Pradesh to match China’s infrastructure development.
“There is a dispute about the eastern part of the China- India border. Before the final settlement is reached we hope that India will not take any action that may further complicate the situation,” Mr Hong said.
“We should jointly safeguard the peace and tranquillity of the border area and create favourable conditions for the final settlement of the border issue,” he said.
Though the ministry of external affairs did not react to the Chinese warning, India has so far refused to halt its border infrastructure projects under Chinese pressure although many of these projects are plagued by procedural delays.
India is eager to catch up with the headstart enjoyed by China in border infrastructure. For a few decades following the 1962 war, India had ignored the necessity of building infrastructure on its side of the border but is now trying to catch up by building strategic road and rail networks in its border areas.