Amid reports of a second bridge being constructed across Pangong Lake by China, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Friday said this bridge was in areas that continued to be under illegal occupation of China since 1960. “We have never accepted such illegal occupation of our territory, nor have we accepted the unjustified Chinese claim or such construction activities,” MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said in a reply to media queries.
The MEA spokesperson further said, “We have made it clear on several occasions that the Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh are an integral part of India and we expect other countries to respect India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.” Importantly, the MEA’s statement asking China to respect India sovereignty and territorial integrity came a day after the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China) Foreign Ministers’ meeting on Thursday. “The MEA has in fact reminded the Chinese leadership of what External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said at the BRICS meeting on Thursday,” sources said. Addressing his counterparts of BRICS nations, Jaishankar had said that the BRICS must live up to commitments on sovereign equality, territorial integrity and international law. On the border stand-off with China, India has consistently underlined the importance of territorial integrity and sovereignty. So, Bagchi gave the same message to Beijing amid reports of the construction of a second bridge in the area under its illegal occupation. “BRICS commitments on territorial integrity are meaningless if one of its members, namely China, continues to disobey the same,” diplomats say, adding that “this is what Jaishankar sought to suggest to Beijing at the BRICS FMs’ meeting.” The MEA has underlined the need for China, a key BRICS member state, to bridge the gap between rhetoric and action in terms of fulfilling the commitments on territorial integrity and sovereignty of other nations. The Chinese President Xi Jinping in his address at the opening session of BRICS FMs’ meeting was high on rhetoric against hegemonism, calling for respecting territorial integrity and sovereignty of other nations. But China is doing exactly the opposite, said a diplomat.