No question of surrendering Arunachal territory: Pranab
Itanagar | Wednesday, Sep 30 2009 IST
 

Reiterating the Centres stand on Chinese claim over the Arunachal territory, Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today said the state is an integral part of India which cannot be parted with at any cost.

''There is no question of surrendering our sovereignty rights to other countries,'' the former External Affairs Minister commented during a press conference here this afternoon.

Arunachal has been the bone of contention between India and China over the last decade with the latter claiming the entire state under its territory. China had time and again opposed the visit of Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama to Arunachal on November next, besides visit of President Pratibha Devisingh Patil and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to the state in recent times.

''India has conducted eleven rounds of talk with the neighbouring country and during the talks we have maintained that Arunachal cannot be parted with at any cost,'' commented Mr Mukherjee, adding things were moving in a positive direction after each round of talk.

When asked on the traditional trade relations between the two Asian giants since time immemorial, Mr Mukherjee disclosed that the trade between India and Tibet Autonomous region of Peoples Republic of China ceases after 1962 aggression.

''In 1988 former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi visited China and a discussion took place on normal border trade. During my tenure as the foreign minister during 1995, we opened two border trade points at Lekula and Sipkilla and during the visit of Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabow in 2006, it was agreed to open another trade point at Nathula,'' he added.

-- (UNI) -- 30CA20.xml

 

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