Just a week ahead of Chinese President Hu Jintao's state visit to India, Beijing's envoy in New Delhi Sun Yuxi has claimed that Arunachal Pradesh is a Chinese territory.
"In our position, the whole of the state of Arunachal Pradesh is Chinese territory. And Tawang is only one of the places in it. We are claiming all of that. That is our position," Chinese Ambassador to India Sun Yuxi said on Monday.
The statement coming just a week ahead of Hu Jintao's visit to India from November 20-23 is significant as both countries claim progress in bilateral relations and on the border question.
In an interview with the CNN/IBN, Sun Yuxi avoided a question on China wanting India to give up nuclear weapons.
"Unfortunately, we have five nuclear weapons powers in the world. That number should be reduced. We will be very happy if we can give up our nuclear weapons and are working for an international agreement on elimination of nuclear weapons," he said.
He refuted charges about China proliferating nuclear weapons and technology and described these as 'groundless and fabricated.'
"Totally groundless, fabricated. We are very strictly following the rules of the non-proliferation policy. That is definitely groundless, fabricated," he asserted.
To a question on the upcoming visit of the Chinese President to India, Sun Yuxi said: "The two leaders will work out a mechanism for high level consultations. So we will have regular visits from now on."
He also denied that China was trying to contain India and said India's neighbours are also China's neighbours and so its foreign policy is to promote political stability and economic development.
'We have forgotten the past. China has not'
More from rediff