CHINA said yesterday that it was absurd for India to use the excuse of Chinese road-building to cross their border, and accused India of militarizing its side of the frontier.
A stand-off on a plateau next to the mountainous Indian state of Sikkim, which borders China, has raised tensions between the neighbors.
Indian guards crossed into China’s Doklam region early last month and obstructed work on a road on the plateau.
Troops from the two sides then confronted each other close to a Chinese valley that separates India from Bhutan.
India has said it had warned China that construction of the road near their common border would have serious security implications.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang, speaking at a daily news briefing, again urged India to withdraw its personnel “to avoid there being an even more serious situation creating even more serious consequences.”
Geng said China did not understand what reason India had for believing the road was a security risk, and that China had every right to build roads in its own territory.
It was “ridiculous” for India to cross the border on the pretext of concern over the road, he said.
“Over the past few years it’s actually been India that has, in the Sikkim sector of the China-India border, been building a great number of facilities and deploying a large number of forces,” Geng said.
In some areas they have been building military facilities including fortifications, he said.
“I don’t know whether India has considered China’s security concerns while doing these things.”
China accused India of taking the protection of Bhutan as an excuse to legitimize its incursion.
“India’s intention is very clear, which is to use the so-called ‘security concern’ as well as protecting Bhutan as a pretext to cross the China-India boundary at the Sikkim section and enter the Chinese territory of Doklam,” Geng said.
By creating disputes in Doklam, India intends to obstruct border negotiations between China and Bhutan, Geng said.
China and Bhutan started border negotiations in the 1980s, and have held 24 rounds of talks.
“China observes relevant agreements with Bhutan, and China’s activities in Doklam have not violated any bilateral agreement nor disrupted the status quo,” he said.
China has the willingness to solve the issue in diplomatic ways and peaceful means once India withdraws its troops from Chinese soil, Geng said.