Girja Shankar Kaura

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 4

India today reiterated that it would continue to engage with China through diplomatic channels to find a mutually acceptable solution to Doklam standoff. At a media briefing here, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Gopal Baglay said India’s objective was to achieve peace and tranquility in India-China border areas and it could be achieved only through diplomacy. Baglay said India was upset with China for stalling the UN move to list JeM’s Masood Azhar a global terrorist. To a query, Baglay replied New Delhi would continue to engage with Beijing through diplomatic channels to find a mutually acceptable solution to the border tension in the Sikkim sector. “It has already been conveyed to China that peace and tranquility are required in border areas,” he said.External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had yesterday said India would not negotiate on the border issue. “We are talking about bilateral relations with China. That is the only way to find a solution,” she had said.Reacting to Sushma’s statement in the Rajya Sabha, China said it had shown “utmost goodwill” over the prolonged military standoff with India in the Sikkim sector, but warned its “restraint” had a “bottom line”.China’s Defence Ministry spokesperson Ren Guoqiang said India must “immediately withdraw its trespassing troops”. “India must give up the illusion of its delaying tactic and immediately withdraw its trespassing troops to the Indian side of the boundary,” state-controlled Xinhua news agency quoted Ren as saying.The External Affairs Ministry had, in a statement yesterday, said peace and tranquility on the India-China border constituted an important prerequisite for the smooth development of bilateral relations.