Delhi, Beijing to talk border in 10 days

The India-China boundary talks, earlier scheduled to be held ahead of Chinese President Hu Jinato’s visit last November, will now take place here on January 17-18

The India-China boundary talks, earlier scheduled to be held ahead of Chinese President Hu Jinato’s visit last November, will now take place here on January 17-18, soon after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh returns from the East Asia summit at Cebu (Philippines) where he will meet Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.

The focus in the ninth round of talks between the two Special Representatives M K Narayanan and Dai Bingguo will be on China’s claim over 90,000 sq km in Arunachal Pradesh, particularly Tawang.

Chinese Vice-Minister Dai is expected to arrive here on January 16. The talks will be held over the next two days, after which the delegation will be taken to Khajuraho. The last time Dai was here, he was taken to Kochi.

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India had hoped to obtain a positive response in the form of a shift in China’s position on Tawang ahead of Hu’s visit but that effort did not reach any such conclusion after Beijing showed no inclination to hold SR-level talks in mid-November as proposed by New Delhi.

Instead, not only were the talks not held, Chinese Ambassador to India Sun Yuxi went on to reassert Chinese claims in Arunachal Pradesh just days ahead of the visit.

Sources said it will be important to retain the overall political perspective of the talks in this round that requires drawing up a package solution addressing all three sectors of the India-China border. While discussing Arunachal Pradesh, India will also look to address the issue in this larger context than make it an issue of just the Eastern sector.

Based on the political parameters and guiding principles agreed by both countries in April 2005 during Wen’s visit to India, New Delhi has highlighted the principle of “safeguarding interests of settled population” to make the point that there can be no territorial exchange in Arunachal Pradesh.

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However, sources indicated that China felt many of the areas — Tawang, Asaphila, Kinzemane — it claims in Arunachal Pradesh are sparsely populated.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had make it clear to Hu, during his visit, that India cannot accept any territorial exchange which involves uprooting settled population. The two leaders agreed to define an early settlement of the boundary question as a “strategic objective” and directed the special representatives to “accelerate their efforts”.

So this will be a crucial round of boundary negotiations as the last few months given that India had make active efforts to underline its control over Arunachal Pradesh.

It has fast-racked over 3000 km of road projects in the state, including for the first time taking roads up to border posts. And only last month, during the PM’s visit to Tokyo, India agreed to Japan taking up the 3000 MW Lohit power project in Arunachal.