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Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh - Source: Reuters
Beijing said it was seriously dissatisfied by the visit of an
Indian leader to a disputed Himalayan region, the latest tense
exchange between the Asian giants over border areas claimed by
both.
China's foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu accused an unnamed
Indian leader of ignoring China's concerns by visiting the state of
Arunachal Pradesh.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh travelled to the mountainous state,
twice the size of Switzerland, earlier this month to woo voters
ahead of Tuesday's state assembly election.
Beijing lays claim to 90,000 sq kilometres of land in the border
state, that it sees as southern Tibet and had already expressed its
anger about a planned visit by the Dalai Lama in November.
"We demand the Indian side pay attention to the serious and just
concerns of the Chinese side, and do not provoke incidents in the
disputed region, in order to facilitate the healthy development of
Sino-Indian relations," Ma said in a statement posted on the
Foreign Ministry website.
India and China fought a brief but bloody border war, partly over
Arunachal Pradesh, in 1962, and while trade between the two has
since flourished, the border disputes have never been
resolved.
Mistrust remains close below the surface and appears to have
resurfaced in recent months.
There has been a flurry of reports in Indian media of Chinese
incursions along the border - shrugged off by both governments -
and Delhi this month protested against a Chinese embassy policy of
issuing different visas to residents of disputed Kashmir.
China also protested against the Dalai Lama's trip to Arunachal
Pradesh.
It reviles the Tibetan spiritual leader as a separatist and said the trip was further proof of his scheming.
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