China: Paying 'close attention' to issue of missing Indian Air Force fighter jet

The Chinese military claimed on Thursday that it was paying attention to the incident in which an Indian Air Force fighter jet with two pilots on board went missing along the Sino-India border two days ago.

Paying "close attention" to it, Chinese defence spokesman Col Ren Guochang said when asked at a briefing about whether the Chinese military would cooperate in tracing the missing Sukhoi fighter jet. However, he declined to give any details and said that the foreign ministry has reacted on the issue on Wednesday.

Ren's remarks appeared slightly positive compared to the curt comments of Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kangwho had said that he has no information on the missing planeand warned India that it should avoid disrupting peace andstability in Arunachal Pradesh, which China refers to as 'South Tibet'.

"For the situation you mentioned, I have no relevantinformation to offer at the moment," Lu had told the media when asked about the missing Indian Air Force plane along the India-China border. 

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At the same time, he referred to the border dispute between India and China, saying that "first of all on the eastern section of the India-China border, China's position is consistent and clear."

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"We hope India can stick to the arrangements reached between the two sides and avoid disrupting peace and stability at the border areas," Lu had said. The SU-30 MKI plane had lost contact with the Tezpur Saloni bari Air Force station from where it took off at 10.30am on Tuesday.

With PTI inputs