China ‘pleased’ at troops withdrawal
Print Edition
CHINA said yesterday that it was “pleased” India had agreed to withdraw troops from a border area in the Himalayas following a military stand-off lasting more than two months.
Foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said Chinese personnel completed an on-site check around 2:30pm and verified that Indian troops and equipment had pulled back in the morning from the Dong Lang area.
India’s foreign ministry announced earlier an “expeditious disengagement” in the area after reaching an “understanding” with China on a confrontation.
“I am pleased to confirm that trespassing Indian personnel have all pulled back to the Indian side of the boundary,” Hua told a regular news briefing in Beijing. “Chinese troops continue to patrol on the Chinese side of the boundary.”
On June 18, more than 270 armed Indian troops with two bulldozers crossed the boundary in the Sikkim sector and advanced more than 100 meters into Chinese territory to obstruct routine road construction in the Dong Lang area of the Tibet Autonomous Region.
Hua said that since the Indian trespass occurred, China has lodged representations to India through diplomatic means on multiple instances. It has explained the situation to the international community, and urged India to immediately withdraw its border troops to the Indian side of the boundary.
Meanwhile, Chinese troops have taken effective measures to safeguard China’s territorial sovereignty and lawful interests, she said.
Dong Lang, which borders India’s Sikkim state to the west and the Kingdom of Bhutan to the south, is Chinese territory and has been under Chinese rule for a very long time, she said.
According to the Convention between Great Britain and China Relating to Sikkim and Tibet (1890), the area undoubtedly belongs to China, she added.
The agreement was inherited by India after the former British colony’s independence and has been repeatedly confirmed in writing by successive governments of the country.
Hua said China has “neighborly friendship” with India and expects it to respect boundary treaties and basic principles of international law, and to work with China to safeguard peace and stability in the border area on the basis of mutual respect for each other’s territorial sovereignty.
“We will, based on mutual respect for sovereignty, uphold peace and tranquility in border areas with India,” Hua said
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