China mists up Sikkim's exclusion

"On the question of Sik-kim, this is an issue left over from history. On this issue, we must respect historical facts and at the same time take into account the present circumstances," Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said.

India had made much of the fact that China had dropped Sikkim from its website as an independent country, pointing out that this was tacit recognition of Sikkim's accession to India.

During Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's visit to China earlier this year, China had permitted trade through the Sikkim border, another indication that it was gradually accepting the accession of Sikkim into India.

"We hope the Sikkim question will be gradually solved," Zhang said when asked to comment that China had recognised Sikkim as part of India by removing it from the foreign ministry's website.

She did not comment whether China's decision to remove Sikkim from the ministry's website ahead of Chinese premier Wen Jiabao's meeting with Vajpayee in Indonesia yesterday, could be considered a tacit acknowledgement of India's sovereignty over the north-eastern state.

Experts say the official Chinese position continues to stop short of explicitly stating that Sikkim is part of India.

According to them the latest move does not represent anything new but merely formalises the status quo. The Chinese spokeswoman admitted as much when she said the problems of history had to be seen in the current context.

For India, Sikkim's status in the eyes of China is relatively irrelevant because, except for occasional noises by Beijing makes, Sikkim is very much a state in the Indian union. This is something the entire international community, including Pakistan, has accepted.

These experts say China's opposition to Sikkim as an integrated part of India is symbolic rather than actively hostile, which is why the current controversy over Sikkim is part of shadow play, rather than a major diplomatic victory.