After China called for “redoubling” the efforts to settle the boundary question, India is now trying to dispel the notion that it has been putting roadblocks in the process of reaching a solution to the issue.
For the first time, India said on Tuesday that early settlement of the Sino-Indian disputed boundary should be a “strategic objective” and renewed its call for completing the process of exchange of maps of Line of Actual Control (LAC).
The stress on the matter came after the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Qin Gang said on Monday that the two countries should “redouble our efforts” to push forward negotiations for a framework which could be the basis for a solution.
A day later, the MEA spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin responded, “Our conviction is that an early settlement of a boundary question will advance the basic interests of the two countries and we therefore, feel that it should be pursued as strategic objective by both countries.”
This, effectively, means that India is putting the need for a solution to the boundary issue to the centre of bilateral relations with China, rather than on the back burner as it had been for the last eight years.
Interestingly, Indian officials feel that one of the motives for the three-week long camping by Chinese soldiers, 19 kilometres deep into Indian territory in the Daulat Beg Oldi sector, was to bring the border issue to the forefront before the political leadership of both countries.