New Delhi: External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj has assailed Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for meeting the Chinese ambassador rather than Indian government to be informed about the situation in Doklam, describing the meeting as unfortunate.

Referring to Rahul's meeting with Chinese ambassador Luo Zhaohui, she asked how "a leader of the largest opposition party deemed it necessary to get his facts (on the border row) from the Chinese (rather than from the government)". This led to Congress protesting that it was quite normal for ambassadors to meet political leaders.

Referring to Congress leader Anand Sharma recalling a letter written to then PM Jawaharlal Nehru by BJP veteran A B Vajpayee in 1962, requesting him to call a session of Parliament to discuss the India-China conflict, Swaraj said: "How I wish the opposition had done the same now!"

The minister defended PM Narendra Modi over relations with the US, saying that while the opposition had quoted what US president Donald Trump had to say with regard to India and climate change, they had omitted Modi's response.

Speaking in the Rajya Sabha, Swaraj said the government, however, did not wait for the opposition to seek details on the Doklam stand-off and itself reached out with an exhaustive briefing for leaders of various parties. "The opposition, at the end of the briefing, said it was fully satisfied with my replies to their queries on the Indo-China-Bhutan tri-junction stand-off," she said.