NEW DELHI, Aug 30: Germany has drawn parallel between Russian aggression in Ukraine and China’s claim on Arunachal Pradesh except that unlike Russia, China has not “destroyed” Indian villages and towns.
Germany’s new ambassador to India Phillip Ackerman said on Tuesday that China’s claims on Arunachal Pradesh were “outrageous” and the transgressions by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army at the Line of Actual Control were a “violation of the international order.”
Drawing parallels between Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and China’s “infringement” of India’s border, the German envoy said India should understand that both Russian and Chinese actions were clear violations of international law only that they differ in “dimension” as, unlike Russia, China had not “destroyed” Indian villages and towns.
In remarks that are a first for any diplomat or dignitary speaking about India-China tensions since April 2020, Ackerman told reporters, “We should not forget that China claims that Arunachal Pradesh is part of China, which is outrageous in a way, and we see very clearly that the infringement at the border is extremely difficult and should not be accepted.”
It was Ackerman’s first briefing in Delhi since he presented his credentials to President Draupadi Murmu last week. “But it should also be noted that what happens at the border with China has nothing to do with what happens with Ukraine. China doesn’t hold 20% of Indian territory, China has not been systematically destroying every village, every town [as Russia has]. By dimension, it is completely different although at an abstract level, they are both [violations of international law]. If you transgress the border, it is against the rule of international law,” the Ambassador added.
When asked whether the German government had accepted the differences over New Delhi’s refusal at the United Nations to criticise Russia’s actions, and India’s move to increase its imports of cheaper Russian oil (an estimated increase of 50 times), Ackerman said Germany had wished that India had been more “outspoken” on certain issues, but welcomed India’s decision last week to vote against Russia at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) over Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s virtual address, calling it “progress” in India’s position.
“I think the Indian side well recognises this problem of international law violation. Basically, this is also an Indian problem — you have it on your northern border, and you have been experiencing this every couple of years. …So, while we don’t agree on methods or measures, we do have an understanding of the problem [in Ukraine],” he added.
The comments by the German Ambassador are particularly unusual given that the Modi government itself has thus far not referred to China’s actions at the LAC as transgressions, and has maintained that Chinese forces have “amassed troops” along the LAC, and only that they had “attempted transgressions.” After the Galwan killings in June 2020, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had affirmed that “no one has entered Indian territory, nor was anyone inside Indian territory.”
The remarks also counter statements by External Affairs Minster S. Jaishankar, who has repeatedly rejected comparisons being made between the situation in Europe and the situation in the Indo-Pacific, even asking why more European countries had not then criticised China’s aggressive actions as they had Russia’s. In February 2022, Jaishankar had firmly stated that the situations in the Indo-Pacific and trans-Atlantic were not “analogous.”
(Manas Dasgupta)