Washington opposes encroachments over boundary that Beijing insists is not decided
A truck drives along India’s Tezpur-Tawang highway, which runs to the Chinese border, in the northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh in this file photo. © Reuters
NEW DELHI — The U.S. has stepped into a flaring territorial spat between India and China, coming down firmly on New Delhi’s side.
A State Department official said that the U.S. “recognizes” the state of Arunachal Pradesh as part of India and rejects attempts by others to assert control over the territory. China claims ownership of the area, which it calls Zangnan, or South Tibet.
“We strongly oppose any unilateral attempts to advance territorial claims by incursions or encroachments, military or civilian, across the Line of Actual Control,” Vedant Patel, the U.S. State Department’s principal deputy spokesperson, told reporters in Washington late on Wednesday, when asked about China’s stance.
China on Thursday hit back, saying it firmly opposes the U.S. statement. “Delimitation of the China-India boundary has never been completed,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian told reporters.
Tensions rose this month after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Arunachal Pradesh on March 9, as he prepares to seek a third term in a general election beginning April 19 and running until early June. Modi inaugurated a $100 million tunnel project that is expected to provide “all-weather” connectivity to the strategic Tawang region of the remote state, helping India shore up defense along the 3,500-kilometer de facto border with China known as the Line of Actual Control, or LAC.
China, which regularly takes exception when Indian leaders visit the region, issued a statement “strongly deploring and firmly opposing” Modi’s trip. India then rejected Beijing’s reaction, stressing that Arunachal Pradesh “was, is, and will always be an integral and inalienable part of India.”
Days after the initial tit-for-tat remarks, Chinese Senior Col. Zhang Xiaogang, spokesperson for the Ministry of National Defense, told reporters that “the area of Zangnan is China’s inherent territory,” according to Chinese official media. “China never recognizes the so-called ‘Arunachal Pradesh’ illegally set up by India and firmly opposes it.”
India’s Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal on Tuesday fired back again, saying that New Delhi had taken note of Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman’s comments “advancing absurd claims” over the territory. “Repeating baseless arguments in this regard does not lend such claims any validity.”
India and China have a long-running boundary dispute and the two Asian giants fought a war over it in 1962. They have also been locked in a border standoff in the eastern Ladakh region since 2020, when a deadly hand-to-hand clash broke out between their troops.