Beijing : India’s plan to activate a new data reception and tracking station in Vietnam has been criticised by a Chinese think tank, terming it an attempt by India to “stir up trouble” in the disputed South China Sea region to serve its own ends.
Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has set up a Data Reception and Tracking and Telemetry Station in Ho Chi Minh City, which will be activated soon and linked with another station in Biakin, Indonesia, state-run Global Times quoted reports from India as saying.
India also has a satellite tracking station in Brunei. Reacting to the report, Gu Xiaosong, a researcher of the Southeast Asian studies at the Guangxi Academy of Social Sciences told the daily that “India has no territorial disputes with China in the South China Sea. It wants to stir up trouble in the region to serve its own ends, which is to counterbalance China’s influence.” It clearly indicates India’s attempt to complicate the regional dispute, Gu said.
China lands two more planes on disputed island
China landed two more civilian planes on an artificial island it has built in a contested part of the strategic South China Sea, days after its first successful landing on the island
that drew worldwide condemnation. Two civilian aircraft took off from the Meilan Airport of Haikou, capital of Hainan Province and landed at the airfield on Yongshu Jiao in the Nansha Islands, also claimed by the Vietnam.
The aircraft flew back to Haikou in the afternoon, state- run Xinhua news agency reported.
China had last Saturday for the first time landed a plane on the artificial island in the strategic South China Sea, inviting international condemnation and angry protests from Vietnam which accused Beijing of “serious infringement” of its sovereignty.
Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said last week that China conducted a “test flight” to check whether the newly- built airfield facilities met the standards for civil
aviation.
