2ND LD: India, China agree to appoint envoys on border issue

0 Comments | Asian Political News, June 30, 2003

BEIJING, June 24 Kyodo

(EDS: ADDING REMARKS FROM INDIAN EXTERNAL AFFAIRS MINISTER'S PRESS BRIEFING)

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and visiting Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee have agreed to appoint ''special representatives'' to work on resolving the two countries' border disputes, according to a declaration announced Tuesday.

The two leaders also agreed to deepen mutual understanding and trust between their countries' armed forces through exchange of visits by defense ministers and military officials at various levels.

The agreements were spelled out in a ''Declaration on Principles for Relations and Comprehensive Cooperation'' between the two countries signed by the two leaders Monday, the contents of which were not then immediately made public.

China and India are holding up the wide-ranging declaration as proof that the world's two most populous nations, which together comprise a third of humanity, have entered a ''new stage of development.''

Much of the animosity between China and India, stemming from a border war in 1962 and followed by a limited clash across the disputed border area in 1986, has evaporated, but lingering differences remain over how to define sections of their shared land border.

According to the declaration, the leaders of China and India ''reiterated their readiness to seek a fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable solution (to the border issues) through consultations on an equal footing.''

It said they agreed that pending an ultimate solution, the two countries ''should work together to maintain peace and tranquility in the border areas.''

India says China still holds 38,000 square kilometers of its territory at Aksai Chin in Kashmir. China lays claim to 90,000 square km of land in India's far eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh.

Indian External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha said India's special representative for future border talks will be Indian National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishva.

China will be represented by Vice Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo, Sinha told reporters after Vajpayee's busy round of talks Tuesday with a number of China's leaders, including President Hu Jintao and former president and current Central Military Commission head Jiang Zemin.

On the issue of Tibet's status, the declaration said India ''recognizes that the Tibet Autonomous Region is part of the territory of the People's Republic of China.''

India vowed in the document not to allow Tibetans living in exile in India to engage in ''anti-China political activities.''

More than 100,000 Tibetan exiles, including their spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, are spread all over India and a Tibetan-government-in exile exists in Dharamsala in the Indian Himalayan state of Himachal Pradesh.

The Dalai Lama and his followers fled from Tibet to India in 1959 after a failed uprising against Beijing's rule.

Sinha said the declaration will not affect the current status of the Dalai Lama, described by the Indian foreign minister as a ''religious leader'' and ''guru'' but regularly vilified by Beijing as a ''separatist'' plotting to divide up China's territory.

The declaration also calls for an expansion of economic and cultural ties between China and India.

It states that the improvement of Sino-Indian ties ''is not targeted at any third country and does not affect either country's existing friendly relations and cooperation with other countries.''

Sinha said the issue of Pakistan was raised only once -- during Vajpayee's discussions on Monday with the Chinese premier. These talks consisted mainly of ''poetry, partnership and a little part of Pakistan,'' he said.

In the past, India has criticized China for assisting Pakistan, which Beijing regards as a ''traditional friend,'' in developing its nuclear weapon capabilities.

China and India have also signed a memorandum of understanding on opening up a new trade route between Changgu of India's Sikkim state and Renqinggang in the Tibet Autonomous Region.

Vajpayee arrived in Beijing on Sunday for a six-day visit, the first by an Indian premier in a decade.