Ahead of Premier Wen Jiabao’s visit to New Delhi next month, India and China will hold the 14th round of boundary talks in Beijing on November 29-30, the Chinese Foreign Ministry announced on Tuesday.
The Indian side would be led by National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon while State Councilor Dai Bingguo would head the Chinese delegation at the talks, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said at a regular briefing.
The last boundary talks were held in 2009 in New Delhi, where the two sides had agreed to push forward the framework of the dialogue process.
The November 29-30 border negotiations come ahead of Mr. Wen’s planned visit to India in mid-December.
China and India started discussing border issues in the 1980s. To maintain peace and stability along the border area, two agreements were inked in 1993 and 1996 respectively.
In 2003, the heads of the two countries designated Special Representatives for demarcation work.
In 2005, China and India signed a political guideline on demarcation during Mr. Wen’s visit to India.
The border issue was also discussed during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s meeting with Mr. Wen last month on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit in Hanoi.
On the boundary problem, both Dr. Singh and Mr. Wen said they looked forward to early resolution of the issue and asked their Special Representatives to deal with the subject with a sense of urgency.
“Both mentioned the need to carry the process forward from Guiding Principles and Political Parameters signed in 2005. Both said they will ask Special Representatives to do so with a sense of urgency,” Mr. Menon had said last month after the Singh-Wen meeting.
“They have given new impetus to the process, between Special Representatives and officials, to work through the issues and have given clear direction on how they want this to be handled,” Mr. Menon had said.
