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Twelfth round of Sino-Indian border talks begin on Friday

Amberish K Diwanji in New Delhi

India and China are to hold the twelfth session of the joint working group on the boundary question on Friday and Saturday in New Delhi.

The Indian side will be led by Foreign Secretary Lalit Mansingh while the Chinese team will be headed by Vice Foreign Minister Yang Wenchang.

The previous meeting of the JWG took place in Beijing on April 26 and 27, 1999.

Sino-Indian relations have been steady over the past few years, making slow, incremental steps since the May 1998 nuclear tests by India, when bilateral ties plunged to a new low. The situation was made worse with Defence Minister George Fernandes terming China India's greatest potential security threat. But soothing remarks by Indian officials later helped to pacify the Chinese.

The latest JWG meeting comes on the eve of the visit by President K R Narayanan to China late next month. External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh had visited China in June last year, when China marked 50 years of the People's Republic.

To mark 50 years of the establishment of Sino-Indian ties on April 1, 2000, the two countries have decided to establish a security dialogue. The first one will take place in Beijing on May 6 and 7.

On the economic front, the sixth bilateral meeting of the JWG took place in Beijing on February 21 and 22 this year. The two sides are exploring the possibility of reopening the Sikkim-Tibet trade route, which was shut down in 1962 when the two countries fought a border war.

The border dispute is a legacy of India's and China's imperial pasts. China claims large parts of northeastern India (Arunachal Pradesh), and says the McMahon Line is flawed. The McMahon Line demarcated the border between British India and Tibet in the early part of the 20th century.

Over the month-long war in 1962, China occupied about 50,000 square miles of the Aksai Chin region of Ladakh. But since then, both sides have maintained status quo.

While both sides are firm on their respective territorial claims with each asking the other to vacate "occupied" territory, diplomatic observers admit that the status quo is unlikely to be disturbed and may be accepted over time. Thus, India will accept the "loss" of Aksai Chin while China will give up its claims in the Northeast. But given domestic political compulsions, this will be done in a slow, phased manner, the observers added.

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