China on Friday said that it opposes any foreign investments in India’s North East, or the involvement of third-parties in resolving its border dispute with India, PTI reported. This came after Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s visit to Gujarat and the country’s plans to increase investments in the North East.

On Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Abe had announced plans to set up an India-Japan Act East Forum to facilitate Tokyo’s investment in the North East. Reacting to this, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying said Beijing is opposed to any foreign investment in “disputed areas”, including that of Japan.

“You must be clear that the boundary of India and China border area has not been totally delimited...we have disputes on the eastern section of the boundary,” she said. She was referring to India’s Arunachal Pradesh, which is claimed by China as its own. India and China are now trying to seek a solution through negotiations, and so third parties must respect this and not get involved in the “efforts to resolve the disputes”, she said.

The two prime ministers had also said that they want to “promote peace, stability, and development in the Indo-Pacific region”. They had said they were for freedom of navigation, in accordance with “universally recognised principles of international law, notably the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea” in the region, which also includes the disputed South China Sea.

In response, Hua said pointed out that Japan and India do not have anything to do with the dispute in the South China Sea and that Beijing’s position is to resolve the conflict peacefully.