India ‘will continue to engage with China’

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said yesterday that India will continue to engage with China through diplomatic channels to find “mutually acceptable solutions” to the Doklam stand off and also continue consultations and coordination with Bhutan.Replying to a debate on India’s foreign policy in the Rajya Sabha, Sushma Swaraj — commenting specifically on the stand off in Sikkim sector — said the border with China in the area was not finalised, and added that the document released by China on Wednesday “selectively” quoted former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru on issues related to the India-China border.“A full and accurate account of that letter would have also brought out that Prime Minister Nehru’s assertion was clearly based on boundary alignment as shown in our earlier published maps,” Sushma Swaraj said.“The Chinese side in their recent document have expressed commitment to maintain peace and tranquility on the India-China border areas.India always believes peace in the India-China border area is an important prerequisite for smooth development of our bilateral relations,” the minister said.“We will continue to engage with the Chinese side through diplomatic channels to find a mutually acceptable solution based on the Astana consensus of our leaders. I note the sense of the house is supportive,” she said.“In this regard, in keeping with unique and traditional friendship with Bhutan we will also continue to maintain close consultation and co-ordination with the Royal Government of Bhutan,” she said.A stand off between Indian and Chinese troops is continuing along the border in Sikkim sector close to the tri-junction of India, China and Bhutan, since June 16.The stand off started after China attempted to build a road in Bhutanese territory and Indian soldiers stopped them.External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj yesterday said that India’s roadmap vis-a-vis Pakistan is clear — that terror and talks cannot go together.The minister blamed Pakistan for derailing the bilateral dialogue by continuing its support to terrorism and meddling in Kashmir.Replying to a discussion on India’s foreign policy in the Rajya Sabha, Sushma Swaraj said: “If you speak of roadmap, we had prepared a roadmap. It was that of peace, friendship and Pakistan’s stability.But roadmap cannot be implemented by one side alone.”“Terror and talks cannot go together. This is the roadmap. The day when they stop terror, talks will start,” she said.Sushma Swaraj said that relations with Pakistan deteriorated not after the Pathankot airbase attack in 2016, but after then Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif called militant commander Burhan Wani a freedom fighter and a martyr after he was killed in a shootout with Indian security forces last June.“Even after Pathankot things did not deteriorate. It was for the first time they did not go into denial like they used to do, and said they will cooperate in the probe,” she said.“Things deteriorated only after Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif called Burhan Wani a freedom fighter and a martyr,” she said.Defending Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision to land in Lahore on way back from Kabul on December 25, 2015, Sushma Swaraj said it was part of a peace initiative India had started.“Our Prime Minister going to Lahore on way from Kabul was part of this initiative. Everything is in public domain. It was Nawaz Sharif’s birthday on December 25. Modi wished him, and he asked Modi to come to make a stopover in Pakistan. Without caring for protocol the prime minister went there.“You cannot say that we did not extend the hand of friendship with Pakistan,” she added. She recalled that when she went to Islamabad for the Heart of Asia conference on December 9, 2015, Nawaz Sharif sat with her and asked Sartaj Aziz to start a dialogue process on the way she had proposed.“In that bilateral meeting it was decided that Secretary level talks will happen. We gave it the name of Comprehensive Bilateral Dialogue so that no doubts should remain. It was decided then that Foreign Secretaries should thrash out the modalities,” Sushma Swaraj said.China’s foreign ministry yesterday said India has been building up troops and repairing roads along its side of the border amid an increasingly tense stand-off in a remote frontier region beside the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan.The stand-off on a plateau next to the mountainous Indian state of Sikkim, which borders China, has ratcheted up tension between the neighbours, who share a 3,500km frontier, large parts of which are disputed.“It has already been more than a month since the incident, and India is still not only illegally remaining on Chinese territory, it is also repairing roads in the rear, stocking up supplies, massing a large number of armed personnel,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.“This is certainly not for peace.”Early in June, according to the Chinese interpretation of events, Indian guards crossed into China’s Donglang region and obstructed work on a road on the plateau.The two sides’ troops then confronted each other close to a valley controlled by China that separates India from its close ally, Bhutan, and gives China access to the so-called Chicken’s Neck, a thin strip of land connecting India and its remote northeastern regions.India has said it warned China that construction of the road near their common border would have serious security implications.Despite China’s numerous diplomatic representations, its foreign ministry said, India has not only not withdrawn its troops but has also been making “unreasonable demands” and is not sincere about a resolution.“If India really cherishes peace, it ought to immediately withdraw its personnel who have illegally crossed the border into the Indian side.” China’s defence ministry last month warned India not to harbour any illusions about the Chinese military’s ability to defend its territory.