Doubts persist over the proposed China visit of external affairs minister Salman Khurshid from 9 May as stand-off over incursion by the Chinese army in Ladakh continued. Refusing to come clear on the matter, MEA spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said, ‘Like all good things, diplomacy needs time and space’. Akbaruddin added that external affairs minister has said that he intends to go to Beijing and that should be the last word on this.
China on Thursday refused to give any time-line to withdraw its soldiers from a camp set up in Ladakh 19 kilometres on the Indian side of the de-facto border in Ladakh. The platoon of Chinese soldiers had slipped across the border in the middle of the night on 15 April, while two helicopters provided cover. Despite three flag meetings between local army commanders from both sides, no compromise has been achieved yet.
When asked what steps were they taking diplomatically to resolve the problem, he said, ‘India-China diplomatic process is on-going. It’s a matter of concern as it is an incident related to geographical scope. Our goal has been return to the status-quo.’
Earlier this week, Salman Khurshid had said that his visit would not be called off. ‘The re-think appears to be motivated, at least in part, by sharp criticism from other parties for a weak response by the government to a show of aggression by China,’ he had said.
China on Thursday refused to give any time-line to withdraw its soldiers from a camp set up in Ladakh 19 kilometres on the Indian side of the de-facto border in Ladakh. The platoon of Chinese soldiers had slipped across the border in the middle of the night on 15 April, while two helicopters provided cover. Despite three flag meetings between local army commanders from both sides, no compromise has been achieved yet.
When asked what steps were they taking diplomatically to resolve the problem, he said, ‘India-China diplomatic process is on-going. It’s a matter of concern as it is an incident related to geographical scope. Our goal has been return to the status-quo.’
Earlier this week, Salman Khurshid had said that his visit would not be called off. ‘The re-think appears to be motivated, at least in part, by sharp criticism from other parties for a weak response by the government to a show of aggression by China,’ he had said.