India's decision to seal Pak border irrational: Chinese experts

Beijing, Oct 11: India's move to completely seal its border with Pakistan was a " very irrational decision" and would further complicate India-China relations considering Beijing's "all-weather" strategic ties with Islamabad, a state media report today quoted leading experts as saying.

"India is making a very irrational decision, since no exhaustive investigation has been conducted after the Uri incident, and no evidence proves Pakistan is behind the attack," the Global Times quoted Hu Zhiyong, a research fellow from the official thinktank Institute of International Relations of the Shanghai Academy, as saying.

Hu was commenting on Home Minister Rajnath Singh's announcement on Friday that the 3,323-km-long border between India and Pakistan would be "completely sealed" by December 2018.

A "completely sealed" border would further hinder the already scarce border trade and talks between the two countries, Hu said. Wang Dehua, director of the Institute for Southern and Central Asian Studies at the Shanghai Municipal Centre for International Studies, said that a sealed border would only disrupt peace efforts made by the two sides.

"The country's decision reflects its Cold War mentality, and would only cause deeper hatred among residents living in Indian- and Pakistan-controlled Kashmir," Hu added.

Since Pakistan is China's "all-weather" strategic partner, India's decision would make China-Pakistan-India relations more complicated, Hu said.

But he said a peaceful resolution of the Kashmir dispute is in the interest of China's homeland security, especially its western regions.

Their hardline comments come ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to India this week to take part in the BRICS Summit in Goa during which he would meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This will be their second meeting in two months.

The two met on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Hangzhou last month. On Monday, China's Vice Foreign Minister Li Baodong defended China's "technical hold" in the UN on a ban on Masood Azhar, the head of Pakistan-based terrorist group Jaish-e-Muhammad.

"China is opposed to all forms of terrorism. There should be no double standards on counter terrorism. Nor should one pursue own political gains in the name of counter terrorism," he had said indirectly accusing India.

PTI