Sino-India eleventh round of border talks today

New Delhi, Sept 24: The 11th round of the China-India border talks to resolve their decades-old border dispute issue will commence in Beijing from today.

The Special Representatives for the two sides National Security Adviser M K Narayanan and Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo will hold talks, which is scheduled to conclude on September 26.

The talks assume significance as it is being held ahead of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's planned visit to China later this year.

"China is willing to join hands with India to find a fair and rational solution acceptable to both sides through friendly consultation in line with the political guiding principles set by the two leaders," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Jiang Yu said.

In Philippines, in January on the sidelines of ASEAN-India Summit, Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao had said the Special Representatives should hold the talks with 'greater vigour and innovativeness.'

The 10th round of talks between the Narayanan and Dai was held in New Delhi and Coonoor from April 20-22, 2007 during which the two sides continued their discussions on a framework for the boundary settlement on the basis of the Agreement on Political Parameters and Guiding Principles reached in 2005.

In 2005, during Jiabao's visit to India, both sides established the guiding principles and political parameters for resolving the boundary dispute.

Beijing and New Delhi in June 2003 appointed Special Representatives to address the border issue from a political perspective of the overall bilateral relations.

The boundary dispute between India and China involve large areas along their 4,000-kilometre border.

India says China is occupying 43,180 sq km of Jammu and Kashmir, including 5,180 sq km ceded to Beijing by Islamabad under the Sino-Pakistan boundary agreement of 1963. China, in turn, says India is in possession of some 90,000 sq
km of Chinese territory, mostly in Arunachal Pradesh.

Before the appointment of Special Representatives, eight rounds of border talks had already been held between 1981 and 1987 and an additional 14 Joint Working Group meetings between 1988 and 2003.

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