|
India-China border talks |
 |
India and China are set to meet again to discuss the contentious border issue between the two countries. Foreign Secretary Chokila Iyer, will lead the Indian delegation to the 13th India-China Joint Working Group [JWG] meeting which will also discuss bilateral relations - beginning July 31.
The two-day meeting will be led from the Chinese side by the Vice Foreign Minister Wang Yi. The last JWG meeting was held in New Delhi in April last year. However, at an expert group meeting in New Delhi last month, the two countries exchanged maps on the middle sector which is the least contentious stretch along the India-China border. At the coming Beijing meeting, the two sides will review the progress made during 9th meeting of the Expert Group and will also consider further programme of work.
At the November meeting, the expert group exchanged maps of the 545 km long middle sector and exchanged views on their disagreements in some sections of the boundary. They decided to take up the issue in the JWG.
The Middle sector is the smallest and relatively undisputed section of 3200 km Sino-Indian border. The sector stretches from Himachal Pradesh-Tibet autonomous region to Uttaranchal-Tibet autonomous region. After the completion of the middle sector, they will take up the two - eastern and western sectors. The western sector is the longest - 1597 km in length followed by eastern which is 1126 km long.
The expert groups, comprising senior officials of the Ministries of Defence and external Affairs, were established after the two countries signed an agreement in 1993 to maintain peace and tranquility along the border during the then Prime Minister Narasimha Rao’s China visit. The deliberations of the expert group are taken up in the JWG on the border issue. So far, 12 rounds of JWG have been completed.
|
