China Claims Right To Build Military Infrastructure in Doklam

Beijing: China on Monday said it is building military infrastructure in Doklam because the region falls under its jurisdiction. Beijing was reacting to an interview by India's envoy Gautam Bambawale to Global Times in which he said it was essential for both sides not to alter the status quo at sensitive points along their border.

Bambawale was apparently referring to Doklam where the armies of the two nations were locked in an over two-month dispute last year, triggered after India halted road construction by the Chinese army. The armies retreated in August from Doklam.

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"Indeed, we have noted that the Indian Ambassador talked on the border issues. The Sikkim section of China-India has been demarcated by the historical treaty and it is under the effective jurisdiction of China. And China will uphold its sovereignty along the border area, including Dong Lang," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said here. Despite the crisis being resolved, some satellite images showed that China has built massive military infrastructure in Doklam.

"You said the images show military buildup by both sides. I should stress that it falls under China's sovereignty that we conduct the facility building in Dong Lang (Doklam) area. And some media carried out reports, saying about military buildup and infrastructure building in the area. They are very excited about it.

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"I should say the two sides should look at our border issue in a calm way, and resolve relevant issues with our existing border related mechanism so that we can create a good and enabling environment to properly solve our differences." (IANS)