‘India slapping its own face with Ladakh road’
BEIJING: China on Thursday questioned India’ s move to build a new road near Pangong lake in Ladakh sector, saying it had “slapped its own face” by allowing such a project along the border that is yet to be demarcated.
The foreign ministry said the new road project sanctioned by India near Pangong lake, where border troops of the two countries clashed last week, was not conducive to maintaining “peace and tranquillity” along the border.
Reacting to a report on the project in HT, the foreign ministry cont ended the move revealed a contradiction in India’s stand on construction of structures along the border.
The HT report had said the of home ministry has “approved the construction of a stand alone road project from Marsimik Lato Hot Spring ”. Mar si mi k Lain Lad akh is about 20 km from the northwestern tip of Pangong lake. The Border Road Organisation has taken over the project after it was cleared by the home ministry.
Foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying reacted strongly when Chinese state media cited the report and sought a reaction at the regular news briefing on Thursday.
“It seems according to reports the Indian side is slap ping its own face. The Indian side is closely following China’ s road-building recently but India’ s actions themselves have proven that the Indian side says something and does another,” Hua said.
“Its( India’ s) words are incomplete contradiction to its deeds in terms of border issues,” she added. “The western section of the India-China boundary has not been de limited. The two sides have agreed to uphold border areas’ peace and tranquillity before disputes are settled. The current road construction by the Indian side is not conducive to peace and stability in that area and will not help with settlement of the current situation.”
Hua was referring to the intervention in June by Indian troops to block the construction of a road by Chinese troops in Doklam near the Sikkim border. New Delhi said the road would have serious security implications.