Tensions hyped as Dalai Lama visits

• Source: Global Times
• [08:01 November 06 2009]
• Comments

By Zhang Wen

Described by the Indian foreign secretary as "complex," the relationship between China and India has once again become the focal point of Indian media, just days before the Dalai Lama visits.

Many India media questioned Thursday whether the Dalai Lama's scheduled visit to a disputed area in southern Tibet (which India calls Arunachal Pradesh) Sunday has strained ties with China.

"There is no strain in bilateral ties," the Hindustan Times quoted Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao as saying Wednesday the Dalai Lama's visit, on the sidelines of a seminar at the Institute for Defense Studies and Analyses in India.

"Our position is very clear," Rao said, while alluding to New Delhi's stance that the Dalai Lama can go anywhere in India, provided he does not indulge in political activities.

According to Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu Thursday, the three-day visit "further exposes the anti- China and separatist nature of the Dalai clique."

Ma also stressed that China is a responsible country and would not do anything detrimental to the interests of other countries.

However, it is not the only issue that stands between China and India.

Also there have been reports of China constructing a dam on the Brahmaputra River, which originates in southwestern Tibet and is known as the Yarlung Zangbo River in China.

After the Indian National Remote Sensing Agency reported some kind of construction on the Brahmaputra, Rao said the Chinese had denied they were building dams.