Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways VK Singh, who is also a former Army chief, made the remarks to a question on the China border row when he was visiting Madurai in Tamil Nadu on Sunday….reports Asian Lite News
Beijing has called Union Minister VK Singh’s comment on India “transgressing the Line of Actual Control” as an “unwitting confession”.
Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways VK Singh, who is also a former Army chief, made the remarks to a question on the China border row when he was visiting Madurai in Tamil Nadu on Sunday.
“With China our border has never been demarcated. Over a period of time, there have been transgressions where China says this is my perception of the LAC. Similarly, none of you come to know how many times we have transgressed as per our perception. We don’t announce it. Chinese media doesn’t cover it. But let me assure you, if China has transgressed 10 times, we must have done it at least 50 times, as per our perception,” NDTV quoted Singh as saying to reporters.
The Minister of State was also quoted as saying that China had been attempting to expand its area by taking advantage of its perception of the LAC, but the government had ensured that this did not happen.
Following the remarks made by Singh, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said “India’s transgressions” were the root cause of tensions at the de-facto border between the two countries.
“This is an unwitting confession by the Indian side. For a long time, the Indian side has conducted frequent acts of trespass in the border area in an attempt to encroach on China’s territory and constantly created disputes and frictions, which is the root cause of the tensions at the China-India border,” Wang Wenbin said, according to the report.
“We urge the Indian side to follow through on the consensus, agreements and treaties it reached with China, and uphold peace and stability in the border region with concrete actions,” he added.
Meanwhile, no immediate response was reported from Indian officials to the comments of Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson.
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