China said on Thursday that it hoped the upcoming boundary talks with India would be constructive and some 'positive results' could emerge out of it in view of the joint decision to expedite the negotiation process.
The upcoming tenth round of border talks is a continuation of the dialogue between China and India at the level of Special Representatives of the two countries on the boundary issue, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said.
"We hope that the meeting would continue in a constructive way and reach consensus. Both sides have agreed to speed up the negotiations on the boundary issue," he noted, ahead of the talks between the Special Representatives of India and China from April 21.
"So we hope that this round will have some positive results as well," Liu told PTI.
The Special Representatives of the two countries - National Security Adviser M K Narayanan and Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo - will hold two-day talks in Delhi and Ooty in Tamil Nadu.
Indian Ambassador to China Nirupama Rao has already left for New Delhi.
As per the set practice of holding talks alternatively in respective countries, the 10th round should have been held in China but the Indian side requested that this time it be held in India, sources said.
The nine rounds of talks have made progress and the two sides are now discussing issues related to demarcation of the border, they said.
The tenth round of negotiations takes place three months after the last meeting between Narayanan and Dai, indicating speeding up of efforts to resolve the boundary issue.
The leadership of both the countries has expressed keen interest to settle the issue as early as possible as it had prevented the normalisation of bilateral ties, Chinese experts said.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao during their meeting in the Philippines in January on the sidelines of India-ASEAN Summit had said that the discussions should take place with 'greater vigour and greater innovativeness'.
Earlier, during the visit of Chinese President Hu Jintao in November last year, the two sides had decided to pursue efforts to resolve the boundary issue as a 'strategic objective' as it would advance the basic interests of the two countries.
'The Special Representatives shall complete at an early date the task of finalising an appropriate framework for a final package settlement of the India-China boundary', the joint declaration issued during Hu's visit had said.
During the visit of Wen in April 2005, India and China reached a key agreement on 'political parameters' and 'guiding principles' to resolve the vexed boundary issue.
India says China is illegally occupying 43,180 sq kms of Jammu and Kashmir, including 5,180 sq km illegally ceded to Beijing by Islamabad under the Sino-Pakistan boundary agreement in 1963.
On the other hand, China accuses India of possessing some 90,000 sq km of Chinese territory, mostly in Arunachal Pradesh.
