India’s road plan is ‘slap in its own face’

New Delhi’s decision to build a road project in an undefined section of the China-India boundary is “a slap in its own face” and won’t help reduce tensions in the border areas between the two countries, Beijing said on Thursday.

The Indian Ministry of Home Affairs has approved the construction of the road project from Marsimik La to Hot Spring, the Hindustan Times reported.

Marsimik La is about 20 kilometers from the northwest tip of Pangong Lake, which is in the western part of the two countries’ border, according to Hindustan Times. China verified that Indian troops resorted to violence on Aug 15 to obstruct Chinese troops’ normal patrol near the lake.

The Indian road project is meant to ensure access to “vantage points” for Indian security forces, The Indian Express reported.

In response, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying mentioned that Indian border troops’ illegally crossed into China’s Donglang in June under the guise of “security concerns” to stop China’s road construction.

“Now India is doing this, which just shows once again India is saying one thing and doing another and contradicting itself on issues concerning the China-India boundary,” Hua said at a daily news conference in Beijing on Thursday.

The western part of the China-India boundary is not yet defined, Hua pointed out, adding that the two countries have agreed to work together to maintain peace in the border areas before the boundary issue is finally solved.

That India is building “infrastructure with obvious military purposes near the Line of Actual Control in the western part” of China-India boundary won’t be helpful to peace and stability in the region, and “won’t help easing the current situation in the border regions between the two countries”, Hua said.