China hails New Year celebrations by Indian, Chinese troops

Beijing, Jan 5: Hailing the New Year celebrations by Indian and Chinese troops at the Arunachal Pradesh border, China today said it demonstrated the goodwill, confidence and determination of both sides to maintain peace and stability on the frontier.

The New Year celebration in the Bumla sector in the northeastern state was in accordance with the agreements reached by both sides who expressed good wishes to each other through this event, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a media briefing here.

She was responding to a question on the New Year get-together between the troops on the India-China border in Arunachal Pradesh.

The event is regarded as a relief for both the armies considering the rough time they had last year in dealing with Chinese intrusions in the disputed border areas, especially in the Ladakh sector where the two sides had a face-off at Chumar overshadowing the visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to India in September. It was resolved subsequently with both sides withdrawing simultaneously from the area.

Hua said events such as the New Year celebrations will enhance exchanges and mutual trust between the border guards. "This way it will contribute positively to the peace and stability of the border areas," she said. The event also shows both sides are confident and determined and have goodwill to preserve the peace and tranquillity, Hua said.

"To maintain peace and stability at the borders, we would like to work with the Indian side to follow the important consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries to further improve the relations of the border troops and jointly safeguard the peace and tranquillity of the border area. She also referred to the Border Defence Cooperation Agreement (BDCA) reached between the two countries outlining measures for the border patrols of the two sides especially when they come face to face.

"In recent years in order to safeguard the peace and tranquillity of the border areas China and India have established a series of mechanism for cooperation and communication. Generally these mechanisms are effective and the border maintained general peace and tranquillity," Hua said. China claims Arunachal Pradesh as southern Tibet.

PTI