India’s move to completely seal its border with Pakistan is a “very irrational decision” and will lead to a major setback in bilateral relations, Chinese analysts say.
“India is making a very irrational decision, since no exhaustive investigation has been conducted after the Uri incident, and no evidence proves Pakistan is behind the attack,” the Global Times quoted Hu Zhiyong, a research fellow from the official think tank Institute of International Relations of the Shanghai Academy, as saying.
Since Pakistan was China’s “all-weather” strategic partner, India’s decision would make China-Pakistan-India relations more complicated, Hu said.
Hu was commenting on Home Minister Rajnath Singh’s announcement on Friday that the 3,323-km-long border between India and Pakistan would be “completely sealed” by December 2018.
A “completely sealed” border would further hinder the already scarce border trade and talks between the two countries, Hu said.
Wang Dehua, the director of the Institute for Southern and Central Asian Studies at the Shanghai Municipal Centre for International Studies, said that a sealed border would only disrupt peace efforts made by the two sides.
“The country’s decision reflects its Cold War mentality and would only cause deeper hatred among residents living in India and Azad Kashmir,” Hu added.
He added that a peaceful resolution of the Kashmir dispute was in the interest of China’s homeland security, especially its western regions.
China’s Vice Foreign Minister Li Baodong the other day defended China’s “technical hold” in the UN on a ban on Masood Azhar, the head of Jaish-e-Muhammad.
“China is opposed to all forms of terrorism. There should be no double standards on counter terrorism, nor should one pursue own political gains in the name of counter terrorism,” he had said indirectly accusing India.
