China, India hold new talks on border

By Li Xinag (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-09-19 07:10

China and India held a fresh round of talks in Beijing on Thursday as part of efforts to resolve their decades-old border dispute.

State Counselor Dai Bingguo, special representative of the Chinese delegation, discussed the issue with India's national security advisor, MK Narayanan.

The two special representatives touched on other issues of mutual interest during the meeting.

Vice-President Xi Jinping also spoke with Narayanan on the border issue on Thursday.

The latest round of talks, which ends on September 19, is the 12th round of negotiations between Beijing and New Delhi on the border issues. The two sides appointed their special representatives in 2003 to resolve the dispute from a "political perspective".

The Sino-Indian border dispute involves areas as large as 125,000 sq km along their 2,000-km border, which has yet to be officially demarcated.

In 2005, the two sides reached a consensus on the political guidelines for the boundary settlement.

Chinese analysts in Beijing said the border dispute should not be seen as a precondition for deepening the strategic partnership between the two countries.

"It is wrong to assume that only when the border issues are resolved, can China and India further deepen their strategic partnership," said Sun Shihai, deputy director of the Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

"The issue is a long-term and complicated one, and cannot be resolved overnight," Sun said.

"The mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries should continue to develop along with the border negotiations and create favorable conditions for the final settlement," Sun said.