China warns India against sale of missiles to Vietnam

Beijing, Jan. 11: Any move by India to step-up military ties with Vietnam to counter China will create “disturbance” in the region and Beijing will not “sit with its arms crossed”, state media said on Wednesday, taking exception to a report that New Delhi plans to sell surface-to-air Akash missiles to Hanoi.

“If the Indian government genuinely treats its enhancement of military relations with Vietnam as a strategic arrangement or even revenge against Beijing, it will only create disturbances in the region and China will hardly sit with its arms crossed,” an op-ed in the Global Times said.

“The supply of missiles was supposed to be a “normal arms sale, yet was portrayed by the Indian media as a response “to counter the Chinese threat”, it said, referring to reports that the missile sale was in response to China blocking India’s move to become member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group and to impose a UN ban on Jaish-e-Mohammed leader Masood Azhar. The tabloid, part of the ruling Communist Party of China, official group of publications has been carrying articles targeting India almost on daily basis with aggressive and hostile language.

While striking threatening posture against India over its increasingly close-knit ties with Vietnam, another article in the same daily on Wednesday warned Hanoi that it must improve ties with China notwithstanding the South China Sea dispute. — PTI