- Saturday, April 20, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
INDIA’S ministry of external affairs on Wednesday (26) expressed its concern over a new law passed by China last week to strengthen protection of the border amid a protracted military standoff between the two nuclear-armed neighbours along their border in the Himalayas.
On Saturday (23), China passed a law specifying how it governs and guards its 14,000-mile land border that it shares with as many as 14 neighbouring countries, including India, Russia and North Korea.
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The law, which was first proposed in March this year, was approved on Saturday and will go into effect by January 1 next year.
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The Chinese law, which has 62 clauses in seven chapters, says “The PRC’s (People’s Republic of China) sovereignty and territorial integrity are sacred and inviolable and the state shall take measures to safeguard them.” It also sets up a legal framework for China’s People’s Liberation Army, the People’s Armed Police and the border defence units to tackle any invasion, infiltration or provocation across its land borders.
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“China’s unilateral decision to bring about a legislation which can have implication on our existing bilateral arrangements on border management as well as on the boundary question is of concern to us,” Arindam Bagchi, spokesperson of the external affairs ministry, said in a statement.
India’s 3,500-kilometre (2,167 miles)-long border with China remains an undemarcated zone and both the countries – nuclear-powered ones – have overlapping claims to large chunks of territory along the border. The two countries even fought a war over the border in 1962.
The 3,500-km-long border between India and China remains undemarcated, and the nuclear-armed neighbours have overlapping claims to large areas of territory along the frontier. The two countries fought a border war in 1962.
The two sides have locked horns along a remote Himalayan border in the eastern Ladakh region of late and they have mobilised their militaries there and more than a dozen rounds of talks have yielded little results.
“We also expect that China will avoid undertaking action under the pretext of this law which could unilaterally alter the situation in the India-China border areas,” Bagchi said.
