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Border talks end

Beijing: The latest round of negotiations between India and China on the border dispute ended here on Wednesday. While no breakthrough was announced, a brief press release from the Indian embassy said the three-day talks were “useful and positive.” The next round will also be held in Beijing.

This was the 11th round of talks since Special Representatives were appointed to discuss the boundary issue from a political perspective in 2003 and third this calendar year.

The China-India border has never formally been delineated. India claims that China is illegally occupying over 43,000 square kilometres of Jammu and Kashmir, including 5,180 square kilometres ceded to Beijing by Islamabad in 1963. China, in turn, accuses India of possessing some 90,000 sqkm of its territory, mostly in Arunachal Pradesh.

The negotiations are closed-door affairs and other than press releases no information is made public.

What is known is that the two sides are now attempting to devise a framework agreement for a final package settlement in line with the “political parameters and guiding principles” that New Delhi and Beijing announced in 2005 during Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao’s visit to India. These include principles, such as consideration of each other’s strategic and reasonable interests and the principle of mutual and equal security. India’s representative is National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan and China’s is Dai Bingguo, Executive Vice Foreign Minister.

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Border talks end

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