Arunachal policy stays, says China
Beijing, Jan. 17: China on Monday said its policy that Arunachal Pradesh is a “disputed area” remains “unchanged”, days after it issued stapled visas to two Indian sportsmen from the state which it claims as “Southern Tibet”.
During his recent India visit, the Chinese Premier, Mr Wen Jiabao, promised to address the issue.
“China’s position is consistent and clear about the China-India border issue including the disputed area of eastern section and the Indian side is aware of it. The position has remained unchanged,” the Chinese foreign ministry spokesman’s office said.
The eastern section of the India-China border covers the Arunachal sector which is part of the dialogue mechanism to resolve it. India-China so far held 14 rounds of talks without much success.
The foreign ministry issued the clarification on Monday to a question asked last week over the controversy of issuing stapled visas to two sportsmen from Arunachal to take part in the Weightlifting Grand Prix at Fujian province.
The two were turned away by the Indian immigration officials as India does not recognise the stapled visas, as the MEA stated India will not honour such visas.
The foreign ministry, however, did not clarify whether the issuance of stapled visas or paper visas as they are known meant any departure from its purported previous policy of not to grant any visas to people of Arunachal in support of Chinese claim that the state is part of its territory therefore its people did not need visas.
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