India’s
plan to activate a new data reception and tracking station in Vietnam has been
criticised by a Chinese think-tank, terming it an attempt by India to “stir up
trouble” in the disputed South China Sea region to serve its own ends.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)
has set up a Data Reception and Tracking and Telemetry Station in Ho Chi Minh
City, which will be activated soon and linked with another station in Biakin,
Indonesia, state-run Global Times quoted reports from India as
saying.
India
also has a satellite tracking station in Brunei.
Reacting to the report, Gu Xiaosong, a
researcher of the Southeast Asian studies at the Guangxi Academy of Social
Sciences, told the daily that “India has no territorial disputes with China in
the South China Sea. It wants to stir up trouble in the region to serve its own
ends, which is to counterbalance China’s influence.”
It clearly indicates India’s attempt to
complicate the regional dispute, the researcher has said.
The news comes close on the heels of the
Foreign Ministry’s criticism of Vietnam’s protest over China landing its first
flight on a newly build artificial island.
India has been calling for freedom of
navigation and over-flight in the South China Sea which Chinese officials say
echo with the stand of the United States and Japan.
China, which has objected to U.S. naval ships
and planes going close the waters of its artificial island in the South China
Sea, has no problem with freedom of navigation.
India has also been advocating peaceful
resolution of the dispute.
China states that the dispute over South China
Sea with Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan should be
resolved through direct consultations between parties concerned. Asia Times
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