Arunachal is Chinese territory: Chinese envoy

New Delhi, Nov 13: Just a week ahead of Chinese President Hu Jintao's state visit to India, Beijing's envoy in New Delhi Sun Yuxi today claimed that Arunachal Pradesh is a Chinese territory.

''In our position, the whole of the state of Arunachal Pradesh is Chinese territory. And Tawang is only one of the places in it. We are claiming all of that. That's our position,'' Chinese Ambassador to India Sun Yuxi said.

The statement coming just a week ahead of Mr Hu Jintao's visit to India from November 20-23 is significant as both countries claim progress in bilateral relations and on the border question.

In an interview with the CNN/IBN, Mr Sun Yuxi avoided a question on China wanting India to give up nuclear weapons.

''Unfortunately, we have five nuclear weapons powers in the world. That number should be reduced. We will be very happy if we can give up our nuclear weapons and are working for an international agreement on elimination of nuclear weapons,'' he said.

He refuted the charges about China proliferating nuclear weapons and technology and described these as ''groundless and fabricated.'' ''Totally groundless, fabricated. We are very strictly following the rules of the Non-proliferation policy. That's definitely groundless, fabricated,'' he asserted.

To a question on the upcoming visit of the Chinese President to India, Mr Sun Yuxi said ''the two leaders will work out a mechanism for high level consultations. So we will have regular visits from now on.'' He also denied that China was trying to contain India and said India's neighbours are also China's neighbours and so its foreign policy is to promote political stability and economic development.

Asked whether China was worried about India's growing closeness with the US, the Chinese Ambassador said China's relations with the US are on a greater scale than India's.

''China drinks more coke and eats more McDonald's burgers than India,'' he added.

UNI