New Delhi
9 May 2007
China has indicated that the negotiations on the boundary question
with India was unlikely to make substantial progress ahead of Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh's scheduled visit to Beijing this year. It said that the issue will take time to
resolve because the disputed area is too large.
"[It] is an issue left over from history ... our disputed area is too large [so it] takes a little
bit time to solve it," Ambassador of China to India Sun Yuxi told this newspaper. He said
that the special representatives from both sides will meet for the 11th round of talks in
"late summer or early autumn" before Prime Minister Singh pays an official visit to
China.
China's Special Representative Vice Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo and National Security
Adviser MK Narayanan met last month. India says China is illegally occupying 43,180
square kilometres of Jammu and Kashmir, including 5,180 sq km illegally ceded to
Beijing by Islamabad under the China-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.
"Our leaders and the government are trying to settle it (boundary question) in a peaceful
way and our people are expecting this problem solved as as soon as possible. Special
representatives are making a very good effort. Already 10 rounds [have been held.] The
next round will be in China scheduled in early maybe late summer or early autumn. This
year there will be a scheduled visit of the Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh. I
think before he goes to China there will be the next round of boundary talks,"
Ambassador Sun said. He said that the dates for the prime minister's visit were being
worked out. "We are still trying to settle it through diplomatic channels ... it is not
finalised yet [but it will happen] in the second half of this year," he said.
Ambassador Sun felt that the boundary question might take longer than expected to
resolve but expected more ground to be covered in the subsequent rounds of talks. "Our
officials are working hard on this but there are some impportant principles already laid
down," he said in response to a question. "The first principle is no matter how long it
would take we will settle it through friendly negotiations. Second principle is before the
settlement we'll keep the border areas peaceful and tranquil. Third principle is that
pending solution our relations will be moving forward," he explained.
He hastened to add that the China-India relationship was developing fast. "We are facing
all round development. Last year we celebrated year of friendship between China and
India and this year we are continuing our friendship year through tourism. In all other
areas in culture, science and technology and even in defence we have lot of friendly
exchanges in these years," he said. He cited the border trade through Nathu-La as an
important indicator of growing bilateral ties.
"This year," Ambassador Sun said, "we are going to expand border trade through Nathu-
La)." He said that certain restrictions on trading in commodities will be lifted and the
duration of trading season will be increased. "[We will be] lifting some of the limits of the
commodities. Both sides already agreed to expand time period of opening [by] two
months more. Next year we are going to open from May 1 (instead of June) and it used to
end in end of October and now we will end in end of November," he said. "Our relevant
officials are working on (opening of new border-trade routes)," he added.
The envoy also said that China was waiting for consensus in the Shanghai Cooperation
Organisation (SCO) on India's membership of the regional grouping. "We are supporting
India to play a bigger role in that organisation but to become a full fledged member we
should have the consensus of all the existing members. So for that China is supporting
India to become a full member. We are waiting for the consensus," he said.
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