Don’t comment on internal affairs, India warns China – Times of India, The Times of India

Security personnel keep vigil at Lal Chowk after bifurcation of the Jammu and Kashmir state came into existenc …Read More

NEW DELHI: The government on Thursday asked China to refrain from commenting on India’s internal affairs and reminded Beijing that it continued to be in occupation of not just a large tract of land in Jammu & Kashmir andLadakhbut had also illegally occupied Indian territory fromPakistan-Occupied Kashmir.
response followed remarks by theChinese foreign ministrythat India’s bifurcation of J&K into two separate Union Territories was unlawful and undermined China’s sovereignty.
MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said China was aware of India’s consistent and clear position on this issue. “The matter of reorganisation of the erstwhile state of J&K into the Union Territories of J&K and Ladakh is entirely an internal affair of India. We do not expect other countries, including China, to comment on matters which are internal to India, ”he said.
” We expect other countries to respect India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. China continues to be in occupation of a large tract of area in the Union Territories of J&K and Ladakh. It has also illegally acquired Indian territories from PoK under the China-Pakistan Boundary Agreement 1963, ”Kumar said. Kumar also recalled that India had consistently conveyed its concerns to both China and Pakistan on projects in the so-called China-Pakistan Economic Corridor which was in territory illegally occupied by Pakistan since 1947.
As far as the boundary question was concerned, he said India and China had agreed to seek a fair, reasonable and mutually accepted solution to the issue through peaceful consultations on the basis of the political parameters and guiding p rinciples that were agreed in 2005. “This was reiterated also in the 2nd India-China informal summit between PM Modi and President Xi earlier this month,” Kumar said.
China’s foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said in Beijing on Thursday that “India unilaterally changed its domestic laws and administrative division challenging China’s sovereignty”. “This is unlawful and void and this is not effective in any way and will not change the fact that the area is under Chinese actual control,” he said.