India-China finalise principles to resolve border dispute
UNI
Apr. 11, 2005

In a significant breakthrough in Sino-Indian relations, the Special Representatives of the two countries today finalised "the documents on guiding principles" to resolve the vexed boundary dispute, to be signed after crucial talks between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao here tomorrow.

National Security Adviser M K Narayanan and Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo, the Special Representatives of the two countries, met for nearly three hours today and deliberated at length on the "guiding principles" that would enable the two countries to resolve the boundary issue in a mutually acceptable manner.

Meanwhile, the Chinese Premier arrived here this evening from Bangalore to a red carpet welcome. He was received at the airport by External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh and Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran, among others.

In response to questions on the meeting between the Special Representatives, an External Affairs Ministry spokesman said, "The Special Representatives met today and had fruitful talks with a view to finalising the Documents on Guiding Principles for signatures tomorrow".

This was the fifth meeting between the Special Representatives of the two countries. The meeting came a day ahead of Wen's crucial talks with the Indian Prime Minister. The two countries are expected to sign nearly a dozen agreements tomorrow in political, economic, aviation and and cultural fields.

The meeting was, however, the first one between Dai and Narayanan, who was appointed the Special Representative on the Indian side last month following the death of his predecessor J N Dixit in January.

The Chinese Premier has already expressed confidence that the boundary issue could be resolved by the two countries in a mutually acceptable way.

Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran, who visited Beijing on March 30-31 for the 15th round of the Joint Working Group (JWG) meeting of the India-China boundary issue, had also held talks with Dai during his visit.

Saran and Dai had exchanged views on the positive developments in the ongoing process of settlement of the boundary question from the overall perspective of the bilateral relations.

During the JWG meting in Beijing, both sides had reviewed the ongoing process of LAC clarification and confidence building measures.

They highlighted the importance of the implementation of the bilateral agreements of 1993 and 1996 for maintenance of peace and tranquillity and for furthering confidence building measures in border areas so as to promote mutual trust and confidence which is essential for the objective of a settlement of the boundary question.

The Special Representative mechanism was worked out during the June 2003 visit of then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to China. The two sides agreed that each appoint a Special Representative to explore, from the political perspective of the overall bilateral relationship, the framework of a boundary settlement.

The India-China boundary issue is dealt by a three-tier dialogue mechanism. Apart from the Special Representatives, the two sides have the JWG as well as an Expert Group (EG) to discuss details of the border issue.

The India-China boundary issue has been lingering for many decades. India says China is illegally occupying 43,180 sq km of Jammu and Kashmir, including 5,180 sq km illegally ceded to Beijing by Islamabad under the Sino-Pakistan boundary agreement in 1963. On the other hand, China accuses India of possessing some 90,000 sq km of Chinese territory, mostly in Arunachal Pradesh.

Chinese Ambassador to India Sun Yuxi had recently described Arunachal Pradesh as a "disputed area" between the two countries.

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