JOIN USJapan asked China to stop trying to unilaterally change the status quo in Doklam Plateau, supporting India’s stand in the military face off with the communist country in western Bhutan.
A month before Prime Minister Narendra Modi will his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe, Tokyo’s envoy to India, Kenji Hiramatsu, strongly supported India’s position in its dispute with China.
“We understand that the standoff in the Doklam area has been ongoing for nearly two months. As it can affect the stability of the entire region, we have been watching the situation very closely,” said Hiramatsu.
He also dismissed Beijing’s claim that Doklam was a territory of China and that the communist country did not have any dispute with Bhutan over the area. “We understand that the area is disputed between China and Bhutan and that both countries recognise the existence of a dispute,” he said.
Japan is the nation to publicly and categorically support the stands taken by India and Bhutan in the standoff with China. The US has been urging both India and China to resolve the dispute through diplomatic negotiations.
“What is important in disputed areas is that all parties involved do not resort to unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force and resolve the dispute in a peaceful manner,” Hiramatsu said in a statement circulated by the Embassy of Japan to reporters in New Delhi. Japan has territorial disputes with China over islands in East China Sea, too.
The face off started on June 18 when soldiers from the Indian Army’s forward post in Doka La in Sikkim stopped personnel from China’s People’s Liberation Army from constructing a road in Doklam Plateau.
PLA soldiers had started building the road along the disputed border between Bhutan and China on June 16, brushing aside protests from the Royal Bhutanese Army. The intervention by soldiers two days later resulted in the face off, which has continued to the present day.