New Delhi, May 6 – In an implied acknowledgement of Sikkim’s status as Indian territory, China has quietly stopped listing the Himalayan border state as a separate entity.
The Chinese move came on the eve of the elections in Sikkim, which will choose a 32-member state assembly and one MP in the last phase of the staggered national elections on Saturday.
“We have taken note of the latest developments,” external affairs ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna said.
He was commenting on the just published “World Affairs Year Book – 2203/04”, an official publication of the Chinese government, which has not listed Sikkim among countries of the world, as it has been doing in the past.
A former protectorate of India, Sikkim integrated into the country in 1975, a development that China had not accepted earlier.
The spokesman noted that when Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee paid a path-breaking visit to China in June last year, “a process was started by which Sikkim would cease to be an issue in India-China relations.”
During the visit, the two countries decided to resume border trade through the Nathu La pass in Sikkim that was seen as the first step towards Chinese recognition of Sikkim as Indian border state.
India, on the other hand, declared “The Tibet Autonomous Region is part of the territory of the People’s Republic of China,” meeting one of Beijing’s main concerns.
The Chinese acknowledgement of Sikkim as an Indian state comes at a time when ties between India and China have been on an upswing.
While bilateral trade is set to cross the $10-billion mark this year, New Delhi and Beijing have also appointed Special Representatives in a bid to speed up the dragging negotiations to resolve their boundary dispute that led a brief war between South Asia’s most populous nations in 1962.
