Amid standoff, Cong says Rahul met China, Bhutan ambassadors

Amid the standoff between India and China at the border tri-junction with Bhutan, Congress today said party vice president Rahul Gandhi has met the ambassadors of the neighbouring countries.

The party downplayed the meeting and did not specify its venue or time.

Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala termed it a "courtesy call" and said envoys of G5 as well as neighbouring countries keep meeting Congress president Sonia Gandhi and the vice-president from time to time.

"Be it the Chinese ambassador (luo Zhaohui) or Bhutanese ambassador (Vetsop Namgyel) or former national security Adviser Shiv Shankar Menon, Rahul Gandhi met all three of them. Nobody should try to sensationalise such normal courtesy calls to term them an event like the sources of the Ministry of External Affairs are attempting to do," he said.

Surjewala said Rahul and other opposition leaders are "fully aware of our national interests" and are concerned about the "grave situation" on the Indo-Chinese border as well as "the situation arising in Bhutan as also in Sikkim".

China and India have been engaged in the standoff in the Doklam area near the Bhutan tri-junction for the past three weeks after a Chinese Army's construction party attempted to build a road.

Doka la is the Indian name for the region which Bhutan recognises as Dokalam, while China claims it as part of its Donglang region.