NEW DELHI: Amidst the face-off between Indian and Chinese armies over the construction of a road in a disputed territory in Sikkim, the latter on Saturday issued a safety advisory to its citizens travelling to India.
The Chinese Embassy in New Delhi issued an advisory to its people to pay attention to safety and avoid unnecessary travel within the country. Clarifying that it is not a travel alert, the Chinese foreign ministry claimed that it is an advisory asking Chinese travellers to be ‘careful’.
The advisory asked travellers from the northern neighbours to India to pay close attention to the security situation and take necessary precautions. It also asks them to carry personal identification and keep their families, colleagues and friends posted about their movements.
The Indian army and Chinese PLA have been involved in a face-off for nearly a month, and both sides had deployed additional troops after initial contentions at the Doka-La area of Sikkim-Bhutan-Tibet tri-junction, where all three countries have claims.
The area is strategically important for India as the crucial Siliguri corridor, known in military parlance as Chicken Neck and having road and rail heads, is just 50 to 60km from there.
Sources said that the army has reservations over China making road up to Dolam, basically, the buffer region leading to Chicken Neck, as they believe the Siliguri circuit will be dissolved.