India & China Discuss Border Dispute

Over the past year, Beijing has protested several times against visits by Indian leaders, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Pratibha Patil, to Arunachal Pradesh and has reasserted its territorial claim over the state.

New Delhi has reacted by reiterating its claim that Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of India.

Alka Acharya, an Indian China expert who has served on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s National Security Advisory Board, thinks the current round of talks -- the 13th so far -- is crucial because “the need to show that these talks are actually heading in some concrete direction has to be demonstrated.”

Safeguarding peace along the border

Ahead of the talks, the spokesman of the Chinese delegation, Ma Chaoxu said the dialogue would play a positive role in pushing forward bilateral relations. He added that the two sides would exchange views about seeking a political solution to the Sino-Indian boundary problems and safeguarding peace and calm in the areas along the border.

India and China fought a bitter war in 1962. Now, however, they are trying to put the past behind them and have been rapidly expanding their economic ties. They adopted the “special representatives” route in 2003 to resolve the border issue from a political perspective after diplomatic negotiations failed to yield any results.

India accuses China of illegally occupying over 43,000 square kilometres of territory in Jammu and Kashmir, including 5,000 square kilometres that Beijing illegally ceded to Pakistan in 1963. Whilst Beijing accuses New Delhi of occupying some 90,000 square kilometres of Chinese territory, most of it in Arunachal Pradesh.

In March, there was much disquiet in New Delhi when China tried to block a development loan for India at the Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB), on the grounds that part of it was meant for Arunachal Pradesh.

Talks should not be “overshadowed”

But analyst Acharya does not think the talks should be overshadowed by these issues: “It is clear they will be tackling extremely complex obstacles in the process. I think what we need to do is to see these talks in isolation from the other issues that tend to cloud the perspective, such as the Chinese stand on the ADB loan, the claim they keep making on Arunachal or the Pakistan factor. I think they tend to generate greater pessimism than is warranted.”

But in New Delhi, Beijing is seen to be aiming at a maximalist position. The Chinese have their eye on the monastery town of Tawang on the grounds that the sixth Dalai Lama was born there.

But the Tibetans, including their exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, have reportedly never asked the monastery town to be returned to them.

New Delhi contends that the Chinese claim on Tawang goes against the political parameters and guiding principles that were agreed in 2005 when Premier Wen Jiabao visited India. The two sides agreed that a final settlement would not entail an exchange of territory in populated areas.

Author: Murali Krishnan
Editor: Disha Uppal