NEW DELHI – India and China ended high-level talks on their border disputes and said top representatives would meet again in search of a resolution to the issue which has dragged since 1988 when negotiations first began.
The Indian foreign ministry in a statement said the two days of talks in New Delhi were held in a “friendly, constructive and cooperative atmosphere.”
National Security Advisor J.N. Dixit and his Chinese counterpart Dai Bingguo led the talks, the third round since June 2003 when the two sides appointed special representatives during a trip to China by then Indian premier Atal Behari Vajpayee.
“The two sides agreed to hold the next meeting in Beijing at a mutually convenient date,” the foreign ministry said on Tuesday.
Following the talks Dai met Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and handed over a letter from Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, the statement said, without elaborating on its contents.
Indian officials on the eve of the talks had appeared cautious on the discussions, saying the new government in New Delhi meant Dao would have to meet a new Indian national security advisor.
Dai, who is vice foreign minister, first met Dixit when the Indian official visited China in 1993 as then foreign secretary.
Earlier this month, China said the New Delhi talks, the second since January, would aim at “finding the guiding principles” for a solution to the border row, which remains unresolved despite 10 rounds of Sino-Indian talks since 1988 between junior officials.
The world’s two most populous countries fought a brief but bitter border war in 1962 and have never demarcated an official border.
India accuses China of occupying 38,000 square kilometres (14,670 square miles) of territory in Kashmir (news – web sites) while Beijing lays claim to 90,000 square kilometres (34,750 square miles) — all of Arunachal Pradesh state, the scene of the war between the two.
During Vajpayee’s talks in Beijing, the two sides agreed to reopen the Nathu La Pass between Chinese-ruled Tibet and Sikkim, a former protectorate which New Delhi annexed in 1975.
India interprets the pact on the Nathu La Pass as the first, if tacit, recognition by China of Sikkim as an Indian state. On its part, India, slightly shifting its stance, described Tibet as an integral territory of China.
Experts see the Chinese statement as a warning against high expectations from the just-concluded talks in New Delhi.
“There is a readiness for compromise but neither side is interested in rushing into agreements and hence this cautious approach,” said Anand Ojha, a political scientist at Delhi University.
The Tibetan government-in-exile, based in the northern Indian town of Dharamsala, has warned Sino-Indian talks could hit roadblocks if the two sides did not address the issue of independence for the Tibetan homeland.
