Indian Army chief's comments will hurt peace: China

Gen Rawat last week said India needed to shift its military focus from its western border with Pakistan to its northern border with China.

Image: Indian Army chief Bipin Rawat/ANI

Beijing: China on Monday expressed anger over Indian Army chief Bipin Rawat's remarks, saying such "unconstructive" comments would hurt peace and tranquility in the border area. Gen Rawat last week said India needed to shift its military focus from its western border with Pakistan to its northern border with China. He also said that if China was strong, India was not weak either. "During the past one year, relations between China and India witnessed some twists and turns," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said. Lu pointed out that in September, the leaders of India and China reached some important consensus on properly handling the differences and promote China-India relations. "Recently, two sides enhanced dialogue on consultation and bilateral relations have shown sound momentum of improvement and development. "Under such background, the unconstructive remarks by the Indian senior officials not only go against the consensus reached by the two heads of state but not conform to the efforts made by the two sides to improve and develop bilateral relations. "It cannot help to preserve tranquillity and peace at the border areas."