Doklam put strain on ties, India must learn lesson: China

FACEOFF Day after meeting Swaraj in New Delhi, Chinese foreign minister hits out at India in unusually blunt statement

BEIJING: The Doklam standoff put “severe pressure” on bilateral relations and “lessons should be learnt” from the episode so that such incidents are not repeated, Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi told his Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj, according to a statement issued by the Chinese foreign ministry.

The external affairs ministry did not comment on the unusually blunt remarks attributed to Wang, who had travelled to New Delhi for a trilateral meeting with Swaraj and Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov. Wang brought up the 73-day face-off between Indian and Chinese troops near the Sikkim border during a bilateral meeting with S war aj in New Delhi on Monday, the Chinese statement said.

The Chinese side did not offer an official statement immediately after Monday’s meeting. Swaraj had said that she and Wang had spoken about strengthening mutual trust.

In the statement in Mandarin, issued hours after Wang left India at about 3 am on Tuesday, he was quoted as saying that bilateral ties during 2017 were “not very satisfactory”.

Wang referred to what he described as trespassing by Indian troops in the Donglang (Doklam) sector near the Sikkim border in June, and said the incident had strained bilateral ties.

“The viciousness caused by the cross-border infiltration of the Indian border guards put bilateral relations under severe pressure. The matter was finally settled peacefully through diplo- matic means, reflecting the maturing of bilateral relations,” he said.

He further said that IndiaChina ties had “maintained their momentum of development as a whole” in 2017, adding: “Both sides have made efforts in this regard. But they (the efforts) were not very satisfactory. However, lessons should be learned and (such incidents) should be avoided again,” he said.

The Doklam standoff was resolved in August, when the two sides agreed to withdraw their troops from the area under Chinese control but claimed by Bhutan.

› The viciousness caused by infiltration of the Indian border guards put bilateral relations under severe pressure. The matter was finally settled...

WANG YI, Chinese foreign minister The standoff was resolved through diplomatic means and fully demonstrated the political wisdom of both sides

SUSHMA SWARAJ, foreign minister, after Monday’s meeting with the Chinese foreign minister