India rejects China’s claim on Arunachal 

Rejecting China’s persisting claims on Arunachal Pradesh, India today made it clear that it cannot “give up” any part of the country that regularly sends its elected representatives to the “sovereign Parliament”. External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said India has been responding to the “noises” made recently and New Delhi’s position had been conveyed by him to his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechn.

“Of late, there have been lot of noises. We have also been responding. First response came from me,” he told reporters here when asked to comment on Beijing’s claims, made repeatedly, that Arunachal is “Chinese territory”.

He said he had made it clear to his Chinese counterpart that “it is extremely difficult for any Indian government adhering to the Constitution” to “give up any part of the country which is regularly sending its elected representatives to the state assemblies and the sovereign Parliament.”

“Therefore, these aspects have to be kept in view,” Mukherjee is quoted as having told the Chinese Foreign Minister.

China has been repeatedly insisting that Arunachal Pradesh is its territory and recently went to the extent of denying visa to an IAS officer who was to travel there along with 106 other civil servants for a study programme.

Chinese Foreign Minister told Mukherjee, during a meeting in Germany last month, that “mere presence” of Indian population in Arunachal Pradesh did not mean that Beijing would give up its claim.

The two countries are working to resolve the boundary issue through the talks between Special Representatives as per the Political Parameters and Guiding Principles.

Mukherjee said New Delhi, however, did not want problems to come in the way of developing relations with China. “That does not mean that till problems are solved, we keep every other issue pending. That is not desirable,” the External Affairs Minister said. He said the relations between the two countries have been improving and trade particulary has increased manifold from a few hundred million to 25 billion dollars.

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