“India has neither accepted illegal occupation of our territory nor has it accepted the unjustified Chinese claims,” spokesperson for India’s external affairs ministry Arindam Bagchi said.
Bagchi made this remark while commenting on the 100-house village constructed by China in Arunachal Pradesh that was mentioned in the US defence department’s report to the Congress.
He added: “China has undertaken construction activities in the past several years along border areas, including in the areas that it has illegally occupied over decades.”
Bagchi said India keeps a constant watch on all developments having a bearing on its security and takes all the necessary measures to safeguard its sovereignty and territorial integrity.
“India keeps a constant watch on all developments having a bearing on its security and takes all the necessary measures to safeguard its sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Bagchi said.
A report of the United States’ department of defence has mentioned the 100-home Chinese village that was reportedly built by China “inside disputed territory between the PRC’s Tibet Autonomous Region and India’s Arunachal Pradesh”.
The US defence report has been titled – “Report on Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China – 2021”.
This report establishes the revelation made by US-based imaging company Planet Labs in January 2021, when it released a series of photographs, claiming that around 100 houses have been built along the river Tsari Chu in the upper Subansiri district in Arunachal Pradesh.
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“Sometime in 2020, the People’s Republic of China built a large 100-home civilian village inside disputed territory between the PRC’s Tibet Autonomous Region and India’s Arunachal Pradesh state in the eastern sector of the LAC,” the report said in a chapter relating to the India-China border standoff.
“These and other infrastructure development efforts along the India-China have been a source of consternation in the Indian government and media,” the report also said.
The United States department of defence has further stated in its report that the India-China stand-off along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), since May 2020, gave the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) “valuable real-world operational and tactical experience”.
“Despite the ongoing diplomatic and military dialogues to reduce border tensions, the PRC has continued taking incremental and tactical actions to press its claims at the LAC,” the US defence report further said.