India, China have made progress on border question: Narayanan

On Board Air India One, Jan 13 (UNI) Ahead of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's talks with his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao at Cebu in central Phillipines tomorrow, National Security Adviser M K Narayanan today said the two sides had made progress on the boundary issue between them.

Dr Singh, who will attend the 5th India-ASEAN and the 2nd East Asia Summit over the next two days at Cebu, is due to meet the Chinese Premier tomorrow morning for bilateral talks on the sidelines of the events.

The two leaders are expected to give a political impetus to the ninth round of talks between Mr Narayanan and Chinese Vice-Premier Dai Bingguo, Special Representatives of the two countries, to be held in Delhi next week.

''We have made a lot of progress (so far),'' Mr Narayanan told journalists accompanying the Prime Minister to Cebu.

In response to a query on the hurdles on the boundary question, Mr Narayanan said, ''The problem is that China says there are issues left over by history. We say that history has no borders.'' ''It is a problem involving the people and territories of the two countries,'' he said.

India has, in the past, made it clear to China that it should not expect any territorial concessions in the Tawang sector of Arunachal Pradesh. India has also made some proposals for opening up the border and institutional cooperation across it.

Both sides see an early settlement of the boundary question as a ''strategic objective''.

UNI