BEIJING: China’s Foreign Ministry on Wednesday said that India has no right to carry out development work in the area that Beijing calls South Tibet.
The spokesperson in a statement said South Tibet is China’s territory. The official was giving its reaction to a report about New Delhi’s plans to build hydropower projects in the border state.
The spokesperson added India had no right to carry out development there and that calling Arunachal Pradesh by India a Chinese territory is illegal and invalid.
Reuters on Tuesday reported that India plans to spend $1 billion to expedite the construction of 12 hydropower projects in the northeastern Himalayan state.
The federal finance ministry has recently approved up to $89.85 million in financial assistance to each hydropower project in the northeastern region.
The plans for the hydropower stations are expected to be announced in the upcoming federal budget that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government will unveil on July 23.
New Delhi claims that the remote state of Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of India, however, China says it is a part of southern Tibet and has opposed Indian infrastructure projects there.
Last week, India Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar met his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Kazakhstan where the two agreed to enhance efforts to resolve border issues.
India and China share a 2,500 km mostly un-demarcated border, over which they fought a war in 1962.
