India responsible for border conflict: China

BEIJING: China on Monday dismissed Indian external affairs minister’s remarks about China-India border conflict and said that the responsibility for the border conflict rested with the Indian side.

“As to the China India relations, the merits of the matters are very clear and responsibility does not rest with China,” Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin said during his regular briefing here in response to Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar comments about China-India relations.Indian external Affairs Minister, during his visit to Australia criticized China’s economic activities towards Australia.Separately, he mentioned the clash between India and China on the border had been discussed during the Quad meetings.Another time, he put the blame on China for the ongoing border conflict.The spokesperson said, “On the ins and outs of China-Australia relationship, we already talked a lot about that on different occasions.I am not going into details.”

He however rejected S.Jaishankar remarks on China India relations and border conflicts and said that the responsibility for the border conflicts between the two countries rested with the Indian side.“Now, the two sides are in communication on improving the border management and the measures to building trust, we hope the Indian side will abide by our agreements, do not issue irresponsible remarks and to uphold the peace and tranquility along the border region with concrete actions,” he added.In response to a question about amassing troops along the disputed areas in disregard to the agreements between the two countries, he said, “On the border issue, China always maintains that we should follow through on treaties and agreements we signed and we jointly uphold peace and tranquility at the border region.”

Wang Wenbin hoped the two sides would continue to maintain communication through military and diplomatic channels to resolve the outstanding issues.China and India have been locked in a border standoff since May, 2020 and several rounds of military and diplomatic talks have only resulted in partial disengagement of troops from friction points. —