China never acknowledges existence of so-called Arunachal Pradesh: FO

BEIJING: A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wednesday said that China had never acknowledged the existence of so-called Arunachal Pradesh and its position on the China-India border issue was clear and consistent.

“First of all on the border issue between China and India our position is clear and consistent. We never acknowledge the existence of so-called Arunachal Pradesh,” Geng Shuang said during his regular briefing here.

When asked to comment on an Indian media report that in the late December, the Chinese soldiers with road building machinery crossed up to 200 meters into the Indian Territory in Arunachal Pradesh, he said, “For the specific situation you mentioned in your question, I am not aware of it.”

In response to the claim that the Chinese soldiers were confronted by Indian soldiers at Indian territory and they left their road construction material on the very site, he mentioned that there was a well developed mechanism between China and India for border related affairs and through this mechanism both the countries could manage border affairs.

“The maintaining peace and stability of the border areas suits common interests of both China and India,” he added.

When his attention was drawn that this particular incident took place just around the same time when China and India held 20th round of border talks last month and whether both the militaries were looking at another border standoff, he said, “Regarding the incident you mentioned which happened last year that issue has been resolved properly.”

He, however, reiterated that it served the common interests of China and India to maintain peace and stability of the border areas.

The spokesperson said that the relevant information about the special envoys meeting on border affairs had been released after the conclusion of talks between the two parities in New Delhi last month.

He said that both the sides also agreed that they would work together to ensure continuous improvement of China-India ties and they would jointly maintain the peace and stability of the border areas.