Will handle China's 'safety advisory' at diplomatic level: Centre

With China issuing a 'safety advisory' for its citizens traveling to India as well as to its nationals living in India, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national general secretary Ram Madhav on Sunday said that the issue will be handled at a diplomatic level by the Government of India.

"Those issues will be handled at the diplomatic level by our government, everything will be sorted out. The India Foundation delegation is going on schedule to China," Madhav told media here.

China on Saturday issued a "safety advisory" for its citizens traveling to India as well as to its nationals living in India, asking them to pay close attention to personal safety and local security, reports the People's Daily.

The advisory was issued through the Chinese embassy in New Delhi.

It asked Chinese travelers to India to pay close attention to the security situation and take necessary precautions.

Chinese foreign ministry officials emphasized that it is an "advisory" and not an "alert" that was issued.

They didn't clarify the difference, but it's likely an "advisory" is milder than an "alert".

The advisory by China came a day after Chinese President Xi Jinping met Prime Minister Narendra Modi during in informal BRICS meeting in Hamburg, Germany, amidst the lengthy ongoing tension between India and China in Sikkim.

Just two days earlier, China had indicated that it was considering options on issuing a travel alert for citizens visiting India.

As per the new statement released by the Chinese Embassy, Chinese nationals in India have been asked to pay close attention to personal safety as well as local security situation.

There was also a possibility of a slowdown in Chinese investments in India, the state-run Global Times said in an editorial that listed the potential fallout of the border face-off.

"Violent attacks against Chinese personnel and companies may happen in India if the two countries see even small-scale military tension at the border," the article said.

"Many people believe Indian nationalism led to the country's independence from British rule decades ago but now it is gradually evolving into an internal factor behind the anti-Chinese sentiment, which is fuelled by ethnic and religious factors."

"The Chinese government attaches great importance to safety and lawful rights and interests of overseas Chinese citizens in accordance with the security condition of the relevant countries," Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang was quoted as saying on Wednesday.