India and China on Monday began crucial talks on the boundary question on a positive note with Chinese leader Dai Bingguo saying the two sides have “scaled much height” and “produced some results” on the framework of settlement of the issue.
Speaking at a banquet hosted in his honour by National Security Adviser (NSA) Shivshankar Menon, Mr. Dai said Sino-Indian ties have made “substantial progress,” “can work miracles” together and hoped the two nations will never go to war again.
Mr. Bingguo and Mr. Menon kicked off the two-day 15th meeting of the Special Representatives on the India-China boundary question which the NSA described as “useful.”
“In the China-India boundary negotiations, although we have not yet arrived at the summit — that is we have not reached full agreement on the framework of settlement of the boundary question — but we have scaled much height and made much progress,” Mr. Dai said.
“I think we can tell the people of both countries that we had not been lazy in this exercise and we have produced some results for our work,” he said without elaborating.
Border management
Mr. Dai and Mr. Menon will be discussing putting in place a mechanism for border management mooted by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao during his visit to India in 2010.
The former NSA, Brajesh Mishra, during whose tenure the Special Representatives mechanism was launched in 2003, and the former Foreign Secretary, Shyam Saran, were among those present at the banquet.
The meeting of Special Representatives was to be held in November last year but had to be postponed after China protested Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama's participation in a religious function in the capital around the time of the talks.
India had then rejected China's demand for cancellation of the function leading to the postponement of the talks.
Noting that Sino-Indian ties have made “fast and substantial progress” since the beginning of this century, Mr. Dai said there was great potential yet to be exploited and the relationship will have an “even brighter future.”
“I hope both sides will make even bigger effort to break new ground and liberate our thinking and try to unleash the energies of 2.5 billion Chinese and Indian people on promoting cooperation so that we can have more cooperation and make great advances in our relationship,” he said.
Mr. Dai said China and India should carry out cooperation wherever they can “and then I think we can work miracles.”
“I hope that our children and our children's children will always live under the sunshine of peace and friendship and that our two nations will never go to war again,” he said.
“We should spend all our resources in taking forward China and India cooperation for the benefit of our people,” he said.
Mr. Dai said the two countries should play an even greater role in further advancement of bilateral relations.
