CHINA OPPOSED TO JAPAN’S ‘INVOLVEMENT’

Beijing, Sept. 15: Amid Japan’s push for stepping up investments in the northeast, China said on Friday that it was opposed to any third-party involvement in the resolution of the Sino-India boundary disputes or any foreign investments in areas over which it has claims in the region.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying, while reacting to Japan’s plans to step up investments in the northeastern states, told the media that China is opposed to any foreign investment in the areas where it has disputes with India.

“You also mentioned Act East policy. You must be clear that the boundary of India and China border area has not been totally delimited. We have disputes on the eastern section of the boundary,” she said, without directly referring to Arunachal Pradesh which it claims as part of South Tibet.

“We are now trying to seek a solution through negotiations that is acceptable to both sides. Under such circumstances, various parties should respect such aspects and any third party should not be involved in our efforts to resolve the disputes,” she said.

Hua also referred to the boundary dispute while replying to a question about the Indo-Japan joint statement issued after the talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe.

The joint statement said, “the two Prime Ministers welcomed the India-Japan cooperation on development of India’s North Eastern Region (NER) as a concrete symbol of developing synergies between India's Act East policy and Japan's Free and Open Indo Pacific Strategy.”

Hua said there was no mention of China anywhere in the India-Japan joint statement nor has she seen any “innuendos” referred to Beijing as stated by the media.