China has conveyed to India its willingness to settle the longstanding dispute over the 3,488 kilometres of Line of Actual Control (LAC) and comprehensively engage New Delhi on all outstanding issues.
Indian National Security Adviser Shiv Shankar Menon and his Chinese counterpart Dai Bingguo recorded 18 points of bilateral agreement on the vexed border issue this week whereby Beijing hinted at its readiness to move forward on settling the disputes with New Delhi, the Indian media reported on Sunday.
Reports quoting top Indian government sources said Menon in meetings with Li Keqiang, ranking member of Poliburo Standing Committee and possible successor to Wen Jiabao as premier of China in March 2013, and National Peoples’ Congress chief and member of the standing committee Wu Bangguo, was conveyed that the new leadership under party general secretary and present vice president Xi Jinping wanted to engage India positively.
“Five out of seven members of the apex standing committee in China have been to India and understand that the only way to move bilateral relations forward is to set aside the boundary dispute on a priority,” a senior official said.
Reports said the Manmohan Singh government was going to take the opposition parties into confidence soon before engaging the new Chinese leadership on finally resolving the boundary dispute.
The central government strategy is going to be similar to former Indian prime minister Narasimha Rao’s approach before signing the 1993 Peace and Tranquility Agreement with China when then joint secretary Menon brought all the opposition leaders in agreement. Faced with a crisis with neighbours in South China Sea, Beijing has indicated that it wants to cement bilateral ties with both India and Russia in order to avoid any ganging up of forces against a rising China. Sources said the new leadership had conveyed that it wanted to dramatically improve relations with India in the next decade and understood New Delhi’s reservations on ties between Beijing and Islamabad.
“There is a growing realisation in China that the political relations with India will not improve merely by increasing the bilateral trade to $100 billion. The new leadership wants to engage India as an autonomous stable power in the world,” said a senior official.
