New Delhi: Days after Beijing expressed hope that New Delhi would continue to recognise its claim to self-governing Taiwan, India said on Friday that it opposed any unilateral change to the status quo over Taiwan and that its position on the “One-China” policy remained unchanged.
In response to Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, visiting the island last week, China launched ballistic missiles and sent out several aircraft and warships to surround Taiwan in recent days.
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Last week, the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi stated that India was one of the first nations to recognise Beijing’s “One-China policy” — according to which Taiwan is an unalienable part of China — and that it hoped India would not budge from its stance.
When asked by a reporter about India’s stance on the one-China policy, Arindam Bagchi of the Indian Foreign Ministry responded: “India has clear and consistent policies in this area. They don’t need to be repeated.”
“We urge the exercise of restraint, avoidance of unilateral actions to change the status quo, de-escalation of tensions and efforts to maintain peace and stability in the region,” he said.
Since hostilities on their Himalayan border in 2020 that resulted in the deaths of 20 Indian soldiers and four Chinese soldiers, relations between India and China have deteriorated. Despite military and diplomatic level negotiations to alleviate the situation, troop deployments are still high on both sides.
The Chinese ambassador stated last week that Beijing was “ready to carry forward the development of our relations on the basis of the one-China principle.”
