China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi has said that India should "conscientiously withdraw" its troops from the disputed Doka La area in the Sikkim sector for a "simple" solution to the over a month-long border standoff
China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi. Pic/AFP
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China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi has said that India should "conscientiously withdraw" its troops from the disputed Doka La area in the Sikkim sector for a "simple" solution to the over a month-long border standoff.
Putting the onus on India to end the border stalemate, Wang, who is the first top Chinese leader to have commented so far on the Doka La impasse, also claimed that India "admitted" to entering Chinese territory.
Chinese and Indian soldiers have been locked in a face-off in Doka La area in the southernmost part of Tibet in an area also claimed by Indian ally Bhutan for over a month after Indian troops stopped the Chinese army from building a road in the disputed area.
China claimed it was constructing the road within its territory, and has been demanding immediate pull-out of the Indian troops.
But External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj told Parliament last Thursday that both sides should first pull back their troops for any talks to take place, favouring a peaceful resolution of the border standoff.
"The rights and wrongs are very clear and even senior Indian officials have openly stated that Chinese troops did not enter into the Indian territory," Wang said on Monday in Bangkok, commenting for the first time over the standoff between the troops from the two countries.
"In other words, the Indian side admitted to entering the Chinese territory. The solution to this problem is very simple: conscientiously withdraw," he said in a brief quote in Chinese posted on China's Foreign Ministry's website yesterday.
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