The Hindu : Front Page : India can't part with territory, Pranab tells China

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jun 17, 2007
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India can't part with territory, Pranab tells China

Special Correspondent

``Issues such as trade and commerce cannot be kept pending till resolution of border dispute''

— PHOTO: RITU RAJ KONWAR

COLOURFUL WELCOME: External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee along with Meghalaya Governor B.L. Joshi and Meghalaya Chief Minister D.D. Lapang (left) being welcomed by traditional Khasi dancers at a meeting organised in Shillong on Saturday.

Shillong: External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said on Saturday that he had made it clear to his new Chinese counterpart that ``any elected Government of India is not permitted by the provisions of the Constitution to part with any part of our land that sends representatives to the Indian Parliament.''

He was responding to reporters, who asked for his comments on Beijing's repeated claims that Arunachal Pradesh is ``Chinese territory.''

`Days of Hitler are over'

``The days of Hitler are over. After the Second World War, no country captures land of another country in the present global context. That is why there is a civilised mechanism of discussions and dialogue to sort out border disputes. We sit around the table and discuss such disputes to resolve them," Mr. Mukherjee told reporters on the sidelines of a seminar on ``Look East Policy'' organised by Public Diplomacy Division of the Ministry of External Affairs here.

He, however, said that other bilateral issues such as trade and commerce with China could not be kept pending till the resolution of the border dispute with China.

Speaking on the theme ``geography as opportunity'' he said that the "North-East is one region into whose progress and development we can dovetail India's Look East Policy.''

``With the paradigm shift from state centralism to interdependence and global and regional cooperation, India is aware of the geo-economic potential of the northeastern region as a gateway to East and South East Asia. I am convinced that by gradually integrating this region through cross-border market access, the northeastern States can become the bridge between the Indian economy and what is beyond doubt the fastest growing and dynamic region in the world.''

``Geography is opportunity and the very location of the North East makes it the doorway to South East and East Asia and vice versa, a doorway for these economies into India," he said.

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