By IANS,
Tawang (Arunachal Pradesh) : India Sunday said that China is “fully aware” that Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of India and underlined that both sides are working together to find a “fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable” solution to their decades-old boundary dispute.
“The Chinese side is fully aware that Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of India,” External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said here on the occasion of the 8th Buddha Mahotsava.
“China is often making claims on Arunachal Pradesh, but Arunachal Pradesh has a special place in our heart,” said Mukherjee who visited the 400-year-old Buddhist monastery in this town, which is claimed by China as part of its territory.
“People of Arunachal Pradesh regularly elect two representatives to the Lok Sabha and there is an elected state assembly carrying out the responsibility of administration like any of other 27 states. The question of parting company of Arunachal or any of its part does not arise,” he said.
Early this year, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited Arunachal and described it as “our land of the rising sun”.
Alluding to 12 rounds of talks between Special Representatives of the two countries on the boundary question, Mukherjee underlined that efforts are on “to find a fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable settlement which will create a boundary of peace and friendship between us”.
“There are problems in identification of land between the two countries,” he added.
Nearly a week after his remarks about China’s strategic challenge to India, which elicited a sharp reaction from Beijing, the minister stressed on friendly and cooperative relations between the two countries.
“At the same time it has been my constant endeavour to develop friendly and cooperative ties with China, and to explore all possibilities for economic and other cooperation between China and our border states,” he said.