China’s protest against PM’s Arunachal visit not new: Pranab

NEW DELHI - Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee Tuesday saw “nothing new” in China’s objection to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh.

It is nothing new. China had objected earlier to my visit to Tawang when I was the foreign minister, he told reporters on the sidelines of an India-Bangladesh dialogue here.

Earlier in the day, India expressed disappointment over China’s protest against Manmohan Singh’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh, whose ownership is disputed by Beijing.

India was reacting to a Chinese foreign ministry statement that Beijing “is strongly dissatisfied with the visit to the disputed region by the Indian leader disregarding China’s serious concerns”.

“We demand the Indian side address China’s serious concerns and not trigger disturbance in the disputed region so as to facilitate the healthy development of China-India relations,” spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said in Beijing.