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Saturday, Jan 05, 2008
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“Border talks in right direction”

PM’s China visit expected to be successful, says Pranab

New Delhi: Ahead of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to China, India on Friday hinted that it did not expect “any dramatic turnaround” on the boundary issue but said negotiations were moving in the “right direction.”

With negotiations continuing between the Special Representatives of the two countries on the protracted problem, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee indicated that there was still some distance to go before it was resolved.

“The visit is expected to be successful. But if you are expecting that there would be any dramatic turnaround on certain issues, which are long-pending, then it would perhaps be too much,” he told PTI Editors in an obvious reference to issues, including the boundary problem that has hampered normalisation of relations.

“But we are working in the right direction. In some areas we are moving very fast and in some we are slow but steady.” Both countries made an institutional arrangement to address the dispute at the level of Special Representatives.

“I am quite hopeful that the Prime Minister’s visit will be very successful and he will have wide-ranging discussions with the new Chinese leadership after the Communist Party Congress.”

Dr. Singh will have talks with his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao and call on President Hu Jintao.

Unable to find a negotiated settlement through diplomatic channels, India and China appointed Special Representatives in June 2003 to address the border issue from a political perspective of overall bilateral relations.

India says China is illegally occupying 43,180 sqkm of Jammu and Kashmir, including 5,180 sqkm illegally ceded by Islamabad under the Sino-Pakistan boundary agreement in 1963. On the other hand, China accuses India of possessing some 90,000 sqkm of Chinese territory, mostly in Arunachal Pradesh.

Mr. Mukherjee, however, said that India’s ties with China in economy and commerce were expanding and bilateral exchange of views was on the rise.

Ties with Pakistan

Asked what India’s experience with Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf was, Mr. Mukherjee recalled that the Pakistani leader had declared a ceasefire in November 2003 and it was still holding and the border was peaceful.

Mr. Musharraf and Dr. Singh held several rounds of discussions and institutional arrangements were in place including the joint anti-terror mechanism. “Though it [the mechanism] has not proved fruitful as yet, let us hope the situation will improve further.”

To a question whom India would deal with, Mr. Mukherjee said, “Let us not surmise about individuals and what is going to happen in the future. We have to deal with the leadership of Pakistan as and when it has been established.”

“No military solution ”

As the Sri Lankan government scrapped the five-year-old ceasefire with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, India said there could be no military solution to the island nation’s problems which had to be addressed by fulfilling the “legitimate aspirations” of ethnic groups.

Mr. Mukherjee said India was “encouraging” the Sri Lankan government to resolve the problem through dialogue and implementation of a devolution formula.

“Military solution is not the solution. Solution has to be found through dialogue and discussion,” he said. Noting that India was “equally aware” of the legitimate aspirations of various ethnic groups, including Tamils, Mr. Mukherjee said their “legitimate aspirations” should be fulfilled within the “arrangements in Sri Lanka within its territorial integrity and framework of the Sri Lankan Constitution.” — PTI

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