China on Tuesday said Sikkim is no more a question with improvement in relations with India as the two sides ended their talks aimed at resolving the vexed border issue.
"With the improvement of relations between the two sides, this is not any more a question within our relations," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said when asked whether China views Sikkim as an Indian territory.
Qin declined to make any further clarifications on the Chinese stand on the Sikkim issue. His comments came as National Security Advisor M K Narayanan and Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo concluded their sixth round of special representatives-level border talks.
India and China had in the past signed a memorandum of understanding to start border trade through Nathula Pass in Sikkim and Tibet.
New Delhi had interpreted Nathula's acceptance as the Indian trade point to be Beijing's first step towards fully recognising Sikkim as an integral part of India. Beijing used to say that the Sikkim question was an issue left over from history and it required patience to resolve the issue.
A joint statement issued at the end of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's visit to India in April had merely stated that 'both sides reviewed with satisfaction the implementation of the memorandum on the border trade through the Nathula Pass between the Tibet Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China and the Sikkim State of the Republic of India'.
India had earlier stated that both sides agree that Sikkim 'has ceased to be an issue' in bilateral ties. This position was stated when former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee visited Beijing in June 2003.
However, in 2003, during the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit in Bali, attended by both Vajpayee and Wen, the Chinese side informed the Indian side about Sikkim's removal from the Chinese Foreign Ministry's website.
This was a significant step as it meant China no longer regarded Sikkim as a separate and sovereign country. Sikkim became India's 22nd state in 1975 and merged with the Indian Union after a referendum overwhelmingly supported the move.