India today said it is "closely working" with the Mongolian government to implement the USD one billion credit line to help it to meet current difficult budgetary situation arising out of various factors including the recent imposition of border tariffs against it by China.
The Chinese action came after Mongolia hosted the Dalai Lama in November following which the Mongolians wanted India to raise the issue publicly.
"Insofar as Mongolia's relationship with China is concerned, I would not like to comment. However, I can make some observations about our own very strong relationship with Mongolia. We are aware of the difficult budgetary situation that Mongolia is facing due to various factors including high cost of servicing of debt raised by them in the past," External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup said.
"As a close friend of Mongolia, which regards India as its 'third neighbour' and 'spiritual neighbour', we are ready to work with Mongolian people in this time of their difficulty," he said and referred to credit line of USD one billion announced during the visit of the Prime Minister's there in 2015.
"We are closely working with the Mongolian government to implement the credit line in a manner that is deemed beneficial to the friendly people of Mongolia by its leadership," Swarup added.
The Dalai Lama's visit to Mongolia, which is China's northern neighbour has riled Beijing as it reportedly put off several meetings and delegation visits, including a trip of Mongolia's Deputy Prime Minister.
Asked about the postponement of the meeting and visits, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang had said "the wrong doing by Mongolia on this issue diminished political foundation between the two countries and brought negative impact to bilateral relations".
"We ask the Mongolian side to respect our major concern and take concrete actions to remove the negative impact and bring China-Mongolia relations on to the track of sound development," Geng said.
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