Chinese army rejects India’s concerns on breach of airspace
The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) on Tuesday dismissed New Delhi’s concerns over its military helicopters violating the Indian air space, hours after external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj said the incident would be raised with Chinese authorities.
China on Monday defended its military helicopters hovering over the Barahoti region in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand over the weekend, saying it has a territorial dispute in the eastern section of the frontier.
Official sources in New Delhi said the two helicopters, which returned to the Chinese side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) after about five minutes, could have photographed Indian troops during a possible reconnaissance mission.
A brief PLA statement said reports from India were wrong.
“The Chinese military was conducting routine training activities on the Chinese side of the LAC. The Indian print (media) reports do not match the facts,” the statement said in Chinese. The PLA denial comes after Swaraj said on Monday the matter would be raised with competent Chinese authorities.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying on Monday said: “In principle, China and India have territorial disputes in the eastern section of the China-India border.”
She had also indicated the helicopters were on the Chinese side of the LAC. “Chinese military carry out regular patrols in the relevant areas. We hope that the two sides will make joint efforts to maintain tranquillity and peace of the border area,” she said. China cautioned India and other Asian countries against forming informal alliances to counter its assertiveness as they cannot rely on the US in Trump era.
Hua was asked about reports from the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore that India, Japan, Australia and Vietnam were contemplating informal alliances in view of the uncertainties of US policies under Trump.
She said that if the reports are authentic, it demonstrate that Cold War mindset has not been eradicated and “some people approach and handle the country to country relations with zero sum opinion”.