NEW DELHI: India and China are likely to move one step closer to resolving their decades-old border dispute when India’s special representative MK Narayanan holds the next round of talks in Beijing beginning on Monday.
Narayanan, who is also the National Security Adviser, will leave for Beijing over the weekend for the eighth round of talks with his Chinese counterpart and Vice Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo.
Although both special representatives will focus their energies on the shape of a likely package settlement over the border row, other crucial issues like China’s stance on the India-US civil nuclear deal in the Nuclear Suppliers Group will also come up for discussions, official sources said.
Narayanan is also likely to seek China’s support for Shashi Tharoor, India’s candidate for the post of UN Secretary-General, and discuss strategic issues as well with Dai.
The likely visit of Chinese President Hu Jintao to India later this year will also figure in the discussions. The year 2006 has been dedicated to India-China friendship by both sides.
India and China fought a bitter border war in 1962 and then re-established diplomatic relations in 1976.
A “political settlement” of the boundary dispute will cover their winding 3,550-km border, removing the most important irritant in their ties.
The re-opening of border trade at Nathu La in Sikkim – a territory that Beijing earlier refused to recognise as part of India – from next month will be another step in the rapid normalisation of ties between the neighbouring Asian giants.
In the last round of talks held in the picturesque resort of Kumarakom in Kerala, India and China had resolved to take their relations to a new high without letting the border issue come in the way.
After the talks, Narayanan had said that he was hopeful of wrapping up the basic framework “within the next two to three rounds”.
“We’ve made a good start. We’ve made progress. We would find a solution soon,” Dai had said.
“The two special representatives continued their discussions for an agreed framework for the resolution of the boundary question in a constructive and friendly atmosphere,” a statement issued at the end of those talks said.
India and China are trying to work out an “agreed framework” for a boundary settlement on the basis of political parameters and guiding principles finalised during Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao’s visit to New Delhi last year.
The “agreed framework” would include a political settlement to resolve the disputed border from a strategic perspective that could include a mutual give or take of territories or acceptance of the status quo as a final solution.
The actual demarcation of the border can happen only after the framework is finalized, official sources said.
During the visit of Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee to China last month, the two countries imparted a new dimension to their ties by signing their first-ever memorandum of understanding on institutionalizing military training.
