The world's two most populous countries, India and China, began another round of talks Friday to resolve their decades-old border dispute, an official said.
India says China occupies 38,000 square kilometres (15,200 square miles) of its territory in Kashmir, while Beijing claims 90,000 square kilometres of the remote Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. This is the 10th round of talks between the two sides since India and China appointed special representatives in 2003 to speed up a resolution to the boundary dispute, a legacy of their brief but bitter 1962 conflict.
A formal ceasefire line was never established after the 1962, but the border has remained mostly peaceful after agreements were signed in 1993 and 1996. The Indian delegation at the talks was led by National Security Advisor M.K.Narayanan while China's Vice Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo headed Beijing's team, said an Indian foreign ministry official who wished to remain unnamed. "The preliminary discussions (on Friday) will be followed by another round of talks Saturday in Ooty," the official said referring to a popular holiday resort in southern Tamil Nadu province.
In April 2005, India and China signed an agreement setting out the "guiding principles" to arrive at a border settlement pact. During a visit to New Delhi in November, Chinese President Hu Jintao said both sides would accord priority to resolving the border row.
Diplomatic ties between the two economic rivals have increased in recent years with the exchange of many bilateral visits and two-way trade touching two billion dollars a month, India's trade minister Kamal Nath told reporters in New Delhi on Friday. Sources said Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh plans to visit China this year.
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