Foreign ministry rejects remarks by Beijing on military exercise with US
‘INDIA DOESN’T GIVE A VETO TO ANY THIRD COUNTRY’
NEW DELHI: India on Thursday rejected China’s opposition to an India-us joint military exercise being held near the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and said New Delhi does not give a veto to any third country on such matters.
China’s foreign ministry had on Wednesday opposed the holding of the latest edition of the India-us exercise “Yudh Abhyas” at Auli in Uttarakhand, 100 km from the LAC, and said the drills violate border manangement agreements signed by China and India in 1993 and 1996. “Let me emphasise that the exercises that are going on with the US in Auli have nothing to do with the 1993 and 1996 agreements,” external affairs ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said.
In a tacit reference to China’s actions in Ladakh sector of the LAC, where Indian and Chinese troops have been locked in a standoff since May 2020, Bagchi said: “But since these (exercises) were raised and we are talking about them and it was raised by the Chinese side, let me emphasise that the Chinese side needs to reflect and think about its own breach of these agreements.”