NEW DELHI: India on Tuesday asked China to desist from advancing an untenable unilateral interpretation of the Line of Actual Control.
India has never accepted the so-called unilaterally defined 1959 Line of Actual Control, and the county's position has been consistent and was well known to all, including China, said the Ministry of External Affairs.
The MEA spokesperson's comments came after a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson told a mainline English daily that China abides by the LAC as proposed by then Premier Zhou Enlai to Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in a letter dated November 7, 1959.
However, the so-called 1959 understanding has been consistently rejected by New Delhi. In fact, the disagreement on the LAC in the western sector started with a letter written to Nehru by Zhou Enlai in 1959. In it, the description of the LAC was given in general terms and was not defined to scale.
MEA spokesperson Anurag Srivastava strongly rebutted the claim and asserted that China's insistence on the 1959 definition of the LAC is contrary to the commitments made by Beijing in several bilateral agreements in 1993, 1996 and 2005.
"We therefore expect that the Chinese side will sincerely and faithfully abide by all agreements and understandings in their entirety and refrain from advancing an untenable unilateral interpretation of the LAC," Srivastava added.
Both nations are "committed to clarification and confirmation of the LAC to reach a common understanding" and the Chinese side's assertion that there is only one LAC, is contrary to the "solemn commitments" it has made, the foreign ministry added. Moreover, this process could not proceed further as the Chinese side did not show a willingness to pursue it, the spokesperson added.
China "attempts to transgress the LAC (to) unilaterally alter the status quo". Stems from this "untenable unilateral interpretation of the LAC".
India, on the other hand, has always respected and abided by the LAC.
