China's Arunachal claim casts shadow over Hu visit

New Delhi -- A Chinese remark reiterating its claim over the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh and India's prompt rejection has cast a shadow over Chinese President Hu Jintao's four-day visit here next week.

A day after the Chinese ambassador to India Sun Yuxi made the claim, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee Tuesday rebutted the contention, rekindling an issue that has been at the heart of a border row between the two countries.

"The whole of Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of India," External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said Tuesday after the groundbreaking ceremony of the Jawaharlal Nehru Bhavan, the proposed new headquarters of his ministry.

"In our position the whole of the state of Arunachal Pradesh is Chinese territory. And Tawang is only one of the places in it. We are claiming all of that. That is our position," the Chinese envoy told CNN-IBN.

The external affairs ministry, busy preparing for Hu's trip, the first by a Chinese head of state after a decade, was upset by the envoy's remarks at a time when the two countries are exhibiting a new political will to resolve the border dispute and to deepen economic and strategic ties.

India regards Arunachal as its "inalienable" part and considers that the state's status is not on the negotiating table even as special representatives of the two countries have held eight round of talks to resolve the row. "Our position on this is well known," Mukherhee stressed.

Although the claim over Arunachal is nothing new, the timing of the envoy's remarks hasn't gone down well here and could affect the atmospherics during Hu's visit, which was being touted as a defining one that will cap a year of India-China friendship.

The border issue will be discussed between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Hu, but the Chinese are keen that the visit focuses on intensification of trade and investment between the two countries.

Several agreements are expected to be signed during the visit.

Arunachal Pradesh Governor S. K. Singh, a former foreign secretary, was quick to disapprove of what he called "an arrogant way of negotiation from China".

After Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's visit to India last year that saw the finalisation of guiding principles and political parameters for resolving the border dispute, both sides have claimed that the border talks were progressing well and the two countries were close to a framework agreement.