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Strictly honoured border commitment with India: China

January 13, 2010 17:33 IST

China said on Wednesday that it has always "strictly honoured" its commitments to work to safeguard peace and tranquility on the border with India.

Reacting to reports that India has lost "substantial" amount of land to China in Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Jiang Yu said she has not read them.

"I have not read such reports," Jiang said when asked to comment on reports that China is now nibbling into India's border territory.

"China and India have reached a consensus that pending the final resolution, the two sides should work together to safeguard peace and tranquility along the border so as not to affect the overall cooperation between the two countries.

"China has always strictly honoured its commitments," she said.

"China is committed to developing relations with India," Jiang said, adding that the Chinese government was promoting friendship and cooperation in various fields with India in the spirit of "equality, mutual-benefit and friendly cooperation".

An official report had recently stated that the area along the Line of Actual Control with China had "shrunk" over a period of time and India had lost "substantial" amount of land in the last two decades.

India says China is occupying 43,180 sq km of Jammu and Kashmir including 5,180 sq km illegally ceded to Beijing by Islamabad under the Sino-Pakistan boundary agreement in 1963.

On the other hand, China accuses India of possessing some 90,000 sq km of Chinese territory, mostly in Arunachal Pradesh.
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