India's chief security advisor visits Beijing this week for new talks to resolve a border dispute that led to a brief, brutal war four decades ago, the foreign office said Tuesday. National Security Adviser J.N. Dixit will meet Chinese Senior Vice Minister Dai Bingguo for two days of talks starting November 18. In July, Dixit met Chinese officials in New Delhi for the first time since a Congress Party-led government came to power in May. There was a second meeting in October with former foreign minister Tang Jiaxuan also in New Delhi.
It will be Dixit's first official visit to China since taking over as national security adviser from Brajesh Mishra, who renewed the focus on a settlement to the border dispute in June 2003 under the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government.
Talks between India and China on the border dispute began in the 1980s with a breakthrough in June last year by the previous government allowing cross-border trade at the 14,500-foot (4,400-metre) Nathu La pass in the state of Sikkim, closed since the 1962 war. The route, used by traders since the Middle Ages, was opened in July 2004.
India accuses China of occupying 38,000 square kilometres (14,670 square miles) of territory in Kashmir while Beijing claims 90,000 square kilometres - all of Arunachal Pradesh state, the scene of the war between the two.