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India and China hold talks on border dispute

NEW DELHI: India and China held a new round of talks on Saturday aimed at settling a decades-old border row in their first top-level meeting since New Delhi struck a landmark nuclear deal with the United States.

India’s National Security Adviser MK Narayanan and Dai Bingguo, China’s executive vice foreign minister, led the two sides in discussing the dispute, which led to a brief war between the Asian giants in 1962.

A formal ceasefire line was never established after the conflict but the border has remained mostly peaceful.

“China believes as long as the two sides proceed forward and conduct patient, thorough and friendly consultations ... we can find a fair and reasonable framework (agreement),” Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said in Beijing ahead of the talks, the Press Trust of India reported. India says China occupies 38,000 square kilometres of Indian territory in Kashmir while Beijing claims 90,000 square kilometres of the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh belongs to China.

The visit by Dai, regarded as a Chinese troubleshooter on nuclear issues, comes shortly after New Delhi and Washington concluded a historic pact paving the way for the United States to provide civilian nuclear technology to India. China has reacted cautiously to the deal, saying nuclear cooperation between India and United States must conform to the rules of the global non-proliferation regime.

Beijing is believed to be concerned about expanding US influence in South Asia, especially its growing ties with India. Talks between Dai and Narayanan, a key architect of the Indo-US nuclear deal, were to continue Sunday. afp

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