New Delhi: External Affairs Minister SM Krishna has brushed aside China's objections to the Dalai Lama visiting Arunachal Pradesh telling CNN-IBN's sister channel IBN7 that the objections have no merit.
"Arunachal Pradesh is a part of India and the Dalai Lama is free to go anywhere in India. The only question is that he is not expected to comment on political developments," Krishna said.
The External Affairs Minister also denied reports of Indo-Tibetan Border Police jawans being injured in Chinese firing in the Kerang area of North Sikkim about 15 days back.
Krishna issued a warning to China, saying the Indian Army was always prepared to protect the country's borders.
"Our territory is safe. Our Army is ready to respond. We can protect our turf," said Krishna.
China has been claiming parts of Arunachal as its territory. The Dalai Lama is expected to visit take Arunachal sometime in November. The Dalai Lama will also go to Tawang, which China has been claiming as its territory, to inaugurate a hospital for which he had donated Rs 20 lakh.
Prime Minister of the Tibetan government in exile Samdhong Rinpoche also described Beijing's objections to the Dalai Lama's visit as absurd.
"Arunachal Pradesh and its Tawang region is an integral part of India. If the Dalai Lama, who is staying for the last 50 years, is visiting any part of the country why does this bother China? If the Dalai Lama goes to Chinese territories it can raise objection but in this case has no business to interfere," said Samdhong Rinpoche.
Meanwhile, Beijing has been pushing New Delhi to resolve the border dispute.
Chinese Foreign Ministry has said that it's good for India and China to settle the border issue as soon as possible.
"The Chinese and Indian governments have reached an agreement that both sides will work together to maintain peace in the border area before the two countries can work out a solution to their border issues. China has always complied with the agreement strictly," Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Jiang Yu said.
Comments
0 comment