Sikkim standoff: China accuses India of having 'ulterior motives' over Doka La tri-junction border

Beijing: China on Friday said India was claiming Doka La as part of the tri-junction with Bhutan out of “ulterior motives”. Beijing reiterated that New Delhi had violated the 1890 treaty between Britain and China. [caption id=“attachment_3787885” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. Reuters[/caption] China said the place where Indian troops “trespassed” was 2,000 meters from the point marked by China as the tri-junction border between India, China and Bhutan. “The so-called tri-junction point, as its name implies, is a point instead of a line or area. The convention between Britain and China relating to Tibet and Sikkim in 1890 states that Sikkim section of the China-India boundary commences at Mount Gipmochi,” China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said. “The illegal trespass by India border troops took place at the Sikkim section of the China-India boundary, 2,000 meters away from Mount Gipmochi. It has nothing to do with the tri-junction point,” he added. “In disregard of the boundary convention, the Indian side takes the entire Doklam region as part of the tri-junction, that is out of ulterior motives. The Indian side introduced the idea of tri-junction point into the incident and attempts to enlarge the point into an area. That is absurd and out of ulterior motives.” Beijing and Thimphu both claim Doka La, where the Chinese were stopped by the Indian Army from building a road. New Delhi’s objection to road building by the Chinese army in Doka La, a strategic point near India’s crucial Siliguri corridor, is because of the pending ownership of the area. Beijing calls the road construction “just”, saying Doklam is part of its territory. China has been asking India to withdraw its troops from the area in order for a dialogue to take place. Indian and Chinese troops have been engaged in a standoff there since mid-June. India has said Beijing’s action to “unilaterally determine tri-junction points” violated a 2012 India-China pact which says the boundary would be decided by consulting all the concerned parties. The two countries, which fought a brief but bitter war in 1962, share over 200 km of border in the Sikkim sector.