Tough Talk by China about Sikkim Bunkers

New Delhi, Aug 2 (UNI) Differences over the international border in Arunachal Pradesh apart, China has once again commenced talking tough with India -- this time over Indian Army bunkers along the border in Sikkim.

Beijing has demanded that New Delhi immediately remove two bunkers in the Dokala area of Sikkim -- along the Sino-Indian border close to the tri-junction of Sikkim, West Bengal and Bhutan, according to Defence sources here.

The Chinese demand perhaps emanates from ''a difference in perception'' about the Line of Actual Control (LAC), the sources observed adding that the bunkers were ''no new construction'' and had been there ''for quite some years now''.

The sources made it clear that there was ''no question of removing these bunkers'' as they were ''on Indian territory''.

The Chinese Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) had, meanwhile, sought a Flag Meeting in the area with the Indian Army on the issue.

No dates had yet been fixed for the desired meet, the sources said.

Significantly, the latest tough posturing by Beijing flies in the face of erstwhile Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao's statement -- made during his India visit in 2005 -- accepting that Sikkim was ''an intergral part of India''. Premier Wen Jiabao had gone on to say -- in reference to the Sikkim border issue -- that ''this is no longer an Indo-China relations issue''.

The new dispute in Sikkim comes in the wake of recent exchange of words between Beijing and New Delhi over the presence of Chinese troops in the Tawang area which India claims is an intergral part of Arunachal Pradesh.

The sources pointed to Arunachal Pradesh being of ''vital strategic importance'' for the territorial integrity and defence of India's North-Eastern states.

They further stressed upon the Chinese strategic reluctances to solve the border dispute with India in the immediate future -- indicating that these would continue to bedevil China-India relations for ''a long time to come''.

UNI