Experts expressed concern on Sunday over the Indian government's "political motives" they believe are behind its wish to establish a consulate in Lhasa, the capital city of the Tibet Autonomous Region. 

The Hindustan Times reported on Friday that Beijing recently rejected New Delhi's request to open a consulate in Lhasa.

"We have asked for the re-opening of the consulate in Lhasa. It's given to our understanding that Beijing is not keen on having any more mission in Lhasa or in any part of the Tibet Autonomous Region," said an anonymous official familiar with the development of the issue, cited by the Hindustan Times.

Indian media reports said India raised the request in response to China's intention to open a consulate in Chennai, a newly-emerging coastal city in South India.

Beijing offered Chengdu, the capital city of Sichuan Province, as an alternative location to Lhasa, reports said.

As an important economic center of southwestern China, a Chengdu consulate would strengthen the ever-expanding economic cooperation between the two countries, reports said.

The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs was unavailable to confirm the news as of press time.

The reason for the request for the Lhasa consulate remained unknown, as Vinayak Chavan, First Secretary at the embassy of India, declined to make any comment on the issue.

Madhav Nalapat, director of the School of Geopolitics at Manipal University in India, insisted both India and China should increase the number of consulates in other countries to deepen bilateral relations and boost mutual trust.

A Lhasa consulate might "help serve the interests of pilgrims from India traveling to Tibet each year as religious pilgrims to holy sites of Tibetan Buddhism as well," Madhav Nalapat told the Global Times.

However, Zhao Gancheng, director of South Asia Studies at the Shanghai Institute for International Studies, said India is motivated more by politics than economic interests in this case.

"The Indian government hopes to closely watch, observe, and infiltrate the Tibetan area after the opening of a Lhasa consulate," said Zhao. "The issue regarding Tibet is an internal affair and we won't tolerate any external forces imposing a negative impact on the situation in Tibet."

The 14th Dalai Lama fled to Dharamsala, India in 1959 after he and his followers failed in an insurgency in Tibet. The relationship between the two nations deteriorated shortly after and China shut down the consulate of India in Lhasa after the 1962 border war with India broke out.

India now has three consulates under the Beijing-based Indian embassy in China, separately located in Guangzhou, Shanghai and Hong Kong. Currently, only Nepal has a consulate in Lhasa.

In a response in May to India's request for a Lhasa consulate, a foreign ministry spokesman made clear China valued the development of mutual relations and for both sides to maintain unimpeded communication on the opening of consulates, Xinhua reported.