Trade resumes over Nathula

GANGTOK, 15 Oct: In the wake of a potential Chinese boycott of border trade between India and China over the arrest of a Chinese national by Indian authorities last week, Nathula today saw trade return, albeit tentatively, after last week’s hiatus. But this is still being seen as a positive sign and trade is expected to pick up in the coming days.
The Custom Official posted at the border for monitoring the border trade between the two countries informed that border trade resumed today.
However what thawed the ice cold Chinese attitude towards the Indian action of arresting one of their citizens was the initiative reportedly taken by the Sikkim Police to explain their position to the Chinese. Sources inform that a personnel of the Sikkim Police today went up to the border at Nathula to interact with the Chinese authorities to explain how the Indian legal system works and further assure that there was nothing out of the ordinary in the arrest of Liangki Jiancen, the Chinese national by the police here.
Following this there was a trickle of trade at the border. There were only 12 Indian traders who crossed over into Tibetan Autonomous Region and about 21 Chinese traders crossing over into Sherathang when the normal figure is around 70. However trade is expected to pick up again in the following days.
Liangki Jiancen was picked up last Wednesday after the ITBP posted at the Nathula border picked him up for taking photographs of restricted areas there. He has been charged with espionage and the chargesheet of the police was submitted on Friday itself. Tension spiked with the arrest and trading ground to a halt until it thawed today.