India, China to hold border talks tomorrow

New Delhi, Jan 16 (UNI) India and China will hold talks here tomorrow to resolve the vexed border dispute.

National Security Adviser M K Narayanan, who is Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Special Representative on the issue, and his Chinese counterpart Dai Bingguo will hold the negotiations, the ninth round since the two countries took up the issue in 2003.

Dr Singh and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao had met on the sidelines of the 12th ASEAN Summit at Cebu, Philippines, on Sunday and directed their representatives accelerate the pace of the talks.

The two Prime Ministers had agreed that the boundary problem could be resolved and that they were working towards this end.

In November last year, Dr Singh had met Chinese President Hu Jintao here and the two leaders agreed that an early resolution of the boundary issue would advance the basic interests of the two countries and invest their strategic partnership with further strength and dynamism.

The Special Representatives have been asked to finalise the framework of a boundary settlement on the basis of the agreement on political parameters and guiding principles signed in April last year.

UNI