Row escalates as China accuses India of betrayal
China flexes naval muscle; Modi, Xi to meet on G20 sidelines
BEIJING: China accused India of “betraying” a British-era territorial understanding over their border in Sikkim, intensifying a diplomatic row that could overshadow talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping, who are expected to meet on the sidelines of a G20 summit in Germany this week.
Concerns over Chinese military deployment have started mounting, with Indian navy sources reporting on Monday an increase in activity by Chinese vessels in the Indian Ocean region. An intelligence-gathering ship, Haiwingxing, was spotted in the Indian Ocean late last month, weeks after the Sikkim impasse began.
Troops from the two countries are facing off near the border in Sikkim after the Chinese army tried to build a road in the sensitive Doklam, a disputed region between China and Bhutan, which Beijing also refers to as Donglang.
The episode is one of the longest showdowns the two sides have had since fighting a war in 1962, and experts in Beijing believe the issue could lead to a full-blown military confrontation. The situation could dominate a possible informal meeting between Modi and Xi, on the sidelines of a G20 gathering in Hamburg.
On Monday, the Chinese foreign ministry cited correspondence between former PM Jawaharlal Nehru and Chinese Pre- mier Zhou Enlai to claim that India “endorsed” the 1890 Sino-British treaty on Sikkim, and said the ongoing “trespass” by Indian troops is a “betrayal” of the position taken by New Delhi since then.
“Former Indian PM Jawaharlal Nehru endorsed the 1890 Sino-British Treaty on Sikkim in a letter to the then Chinese counterpart Zhou Enlai in 1959. Successive Indian governments have also endorsed this,” Geng Shuang, ministry of foreign affairs (MFA) spokesperson, said at the regular ministry briefing.
“The India-China boundary in the Sikkim section is well demarcated. The action taken by India is a betrayal of the position taken by the Indian governments,” Geng said, adding that India needs to follow the treaty and pull back troops immediately from Doka La.
The region is where the borders of the three countries — India, China and Bhutan — meet.