Wen, PM to sign pact on guiding principles today

The two Special Representatives—seniormost Chinese Vice-Minister Dai Bingguo and National Security Advisor M K Narayanan—met today and finalised the agreement that had been under discussion for almost a year. This was the fifth meeting of the SRs, but the first attended by Narayanan.

The first two rounds of the meeting were attended by former NSA Brajesh Mishra and then by J N Dixit who travelled to Beijing in November for the fourth round.

The guiding principles, official sources said, will set out the political parameters within which a solution to the dispute can be explored in the days ahead.

India and China have maintained that a settlement can be reached through mutual respect and mutual accommodation. However, New Delhi was keen on adding another dimension that a solution must take into account existing ground realities.

Wen Jiabao’s mention for the first time on March 14 at a media interaction that both sides must recognise existing ground realities while seeking solution to the boundary dispute, sources said, were concrete signs of a positive conclusion to the agreement on guiding principles.

The principles will take into account aspects such as history, geographical and cultural affinities as well as the existing legal framework in areas that are under dispute.

Currently, China claims close to 90,000 sq km in Arunachal Pradesh and has occupied over 30,000 sq km in Aksai Chin. The political parameters identified through this agreement will allow both sides to work out a solution bearing in mind the overall perspective of the bilateral relationship.

Besides the SR-level dialogue—it was put in place following deliberations during former PM Atal Behari Vajpayee’s visit to China in 2003—there is also the Joint Working Group on the boundary question.

The JWG met after a gap of nearly three years on March 30-31. The group looks at specific sectors and exchanges maps to clarify positions along the Line of Actual Control.

Singh and Wen will carry forward these discussions during their meeting on Monday apart from charting out a course for the future through a host of agreements that will be signed thereafter. Meanwhile, the MEA did not spell out the details and said the SRs had ‘‘fruitful talks’’ with a view to finalising the Documents on Guiding Principles for signatures tomorrow.