“Don’t comment on border infrastructure development’
October 14th, 2009 - 8:45 pm ICT by IANS
New Delhi, Oct 14 (IANS) China should refrain from commenting on infrastructure development on the Indian side of the border since this had nothing to do with growing tensions in the region, a top military commander said Wednesday.
“It has nothing to do with rising tension in the region. I have not said anything about China constructing airfields in Tibet, then why should they comment on anything happening in the northeast or Ladakh,” the Indian Air Force (IAF) vice chief, Air Marshal P.K. Barbora, maintained while speaking to reporters here.
“Both sides are expanding their infrastructure. As India has not said anything about China building airfields in Tibet, in the same way, China should not comment about development of infrastructure on the Indian side,” Barbora added.
He said India was not “creating” anything new in the northeast. “Let me categorically tell you that we are creating nothing new in the northeast. We are only updating our existing infrastructure, roads and airfields”.
“We are definitely increasing the length of our airfields to 10-12,000 feet. As far as the number of airfields goes, only one has been added in Linji (30 km from the Arunachal Pradesh border),” Barbora added.
Asked about China’s objection to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visit to Arunachal Pradesh, almost all of which Beijing claims, Barbora pointed out there was no protest when President Pratibha Patil went there recently.
“Why did they not object when President Patil, who is the supreme commander of the armed forces, recently visited Tawang (in Arunachal Pradesh). You have to read between the lines as to why they objected to the prime minister’s visit. It is because of the successful polls in Arunachal Pradesh (on Tuesday that saw a 72 percent voter turnout),” Barbora contended.
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Tags: air marshal, airfields, arunachal pradesh, border infrastructure, china building, iaf, indian air force, infrastructure development, ladakh, manmohan, manmohan singh, military commander, objection, president pratibha patil, prime minister manmohan, prime minister manmohan singh, supreme commander, tibet, vice chief, voter turnout
