US Recognises Arunachal as Indian Territory, Opposes China's Attempts to Advance Territorial Claims

The United States on Thursday night said that it recognises Arunachal Pradesh as part of India and opposed China’s assertion on the territory.

“For nearly six decades US has recognised Arunachal Pradesh as Indian territory. We strongly oppose any unilateral attempts to advance territorial claims by incursions, by military or civilian incursions across the established line of actual control,” news agency ANI quoted a senior official of US State Department.

Encouraging the two countries to resolve the border issue through bilateral talks, the United States said, “And the disputed boundaries, all we can say is that we encourage India and China to use their existing bilateral channels to discuss those and not resort to military force.”

Meanwhile, the Indian and Chinese army, which have been involved in a five-month-long military standoff in eastern Ladakh, are working to schedule their seventh round of talks to take steps towards “early and complete” disengagement of troops along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh in accordance with the existing bilateral agreement and protocols, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Thursday.

The comments by the spokesperson of the MEA came a day after the two countries held another round of diplomatic talks under the framework of the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination (WMCC) on border affairs to resolve the issue.

The two sides have already held a series of diplomatic and military talks to defuse the standoff but no concrete breakthrough has been achieved yet.