During the Fontainebleau Agreements the officials of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam protested against both the creation of the Autonomous Republic of Cochinchina and the Montagnard country of South Indochina seeing it as disuniting the Vietnamese homeland. One French spokesman countered the territorial claims of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam to the Montagnard country of South Indochina by saying "Neither geographically, historically nor ethnically, can the highlands be considered a part of Vietnam." This was then responded to by delegates of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam reminding the French of Alsace-Lorraine. On 21 June 1946 the French military was ordered to retake the highland provinces from Việt Minh control below the 16th parallel north.