India wants peaceful solution of all outstanding issues with China: Nirupama Rao

New Delhi, Dec.1 (ANI): Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao on Tuesday said India wants to resolve all outstanding issues pertaining to China peacefully, the border issue in particular.

Addressing media persons in the national capital, Rao said that measures have been put in place to ensure peace and tranquillity in the regions skirting the India-China border.

"The issues relating to the boundary question between India and China are in constant focus, as far as the government of India is concerned. As you know, India and China have been in dialogue and negotiations about the unresolved issues pertaining to the boundary for the last few years. There have also been measures that have been put in place to ensure peace and tranquillity in the border areas and the building of the confidence between the border agencies on both sides. It remains our goal and our aim is to seek a peaceful resolution of all outstanding issues pertaining to India-China relations particularly the boundary question," said Nirupama Rao.

As per recent spat, authorities in Kashmir have stopped work on a mountainous road near the border with China after objections from the Chinese army, an official said, underlining a festering row over the border.

The 8 kilometres (5 miles) road was being built in the remote Demchok area of Buddhist-dominated Ladakh area near the Line of Actual Control (LAC), a military line that divides Indian Kashmir and the part held by China.

Tensions have risen between the two countries in the last few months over reports in the Indian media about border intrusions by the Chinese army.

The visit by the Dalai Lama to the disputed Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, which China considers to be south Tibet, had added to the mistrust between the neighbours.

The Asian giants still claim vast swathes of each other's territory along their 3,500 kilometres (2,173 miles) long Himalayan border, which has remained largely peaceful since a border war in 1962.

The border was never demarcated.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had signed an agreement on the 'guiding principles' to resolve the dispute in 2005.

And China formally abandoned its claim to the Himalayan state of Sikkim. But there has been no concrete progress on demarcating the border.

The neighbours, which compete for global resources and influence, have also exchanged diplomatic barbs at multilateral forums and sparred over visa policies for their citizens in an escalating row that many fear could spiral out of control. (ANI)