Japan said on Thursday that it had never discussed with India any road projects along the border with China.

The country stated that projects in Arunachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand were “out of the scope” of surveys announced by the two sides when Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Japan.

On Tuesday, the Chinese government responded to media reports detailing the possible involvement of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in “strategic” road projects in the North-east along the China border, requesting “clarification” from Tokyo that projects would not take place in “disputed” areas.Officials indicated that this referred to Arunachal Pradesh, which China has territorial claims on.

A Japanese foreign ministry official said the geographical scope of the survey that the JICA announced it would undertake did not include states bordering China such as Arunachal and Uttarakhand

A Japanese official for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tokyo confirmed that the geographical scope of the survey that the JICA announced that it would undertake, during Prime Minister Modi’s visit, did not include states bordering China such as Arunachal and Uttarakhand. The official said reports in India were incorrect.

It is also not the case that Japan had backtracked on the projects under Chinese pressure as suggested in some reports, since they were never on the agenda to begin with.

“The geographical scope of this survey includes only Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura as indicated in the outline of the survey,” the official said.

“States that share a border with China — such as Arunachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, which are mentioned in the article(s), are out of the scope of the survey.”

The official also clarified that agreements on the road projects were not certain, and would only depend on the results of the survey.

“At present it has been decided that the JICA will conduct the survey. Whether Japan actually extends its support for a potential road improvement project and the scope of such a project are subject to the result of the survey,” the official said.

The Indian Border Roads Organisation (BRO) has sought Japanese assistance in taking forward long-overdue connectivity projects, especially in the North-east.

The Narendra Modi government has pledged to boost infrastructure projects, including roads along the China border, where delays have led to a widening asymmetry in infrastructure across the Himalayas.