New Delhi: After the Defence Ministry, the External Affairs Ministry too sought to play down today the reports of China building an astronomical observatory in Aksai Chin area which is a remote part of Jammu and Kashmir occupied by the neighbour after 1962 war, saying the location of the observatory did not involve any territorial dispute.
Replying to a question on the Chinese move, sources in the External Affairs Ministry said, “We have seen the reports. They have mixed facts with fiction.” A Chinese scientist on Sunday said East Asia Core Observatories Association (EACOA) – with China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan as its members – had identified a site in Aksai Chin for the observatory.
That China was building such an observatory was true, but the location given in the report was not correct, the MEA sources said.
“The location of the observatory is not an issue of sovereign jurisdiction between the two countries,” the sources said.
Speaking to reporters yesterday, Army Chief Gen V K Singh had said, “Aksai Chin is at a considerable distance from the Siachen Glacier region so there is absolutely no threat to the country’s borders.”
