India, China to hold new round of boundary talks: Mukherjee

New Delhi, Dec 30 (PTI) India and China will hold a new
round of negotiations on the vexed border issue which is an
area of "differences and divergences" despite bilateral
relations having witnessed "visible" improvement, External
Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said Tuesday.

"Of course there are areas of concern...not concern,
but areas of differences and divergences with regard to the
border dispute," Mukherjee told PTI when asked about the
future of Sino-Indian relationship.

He said both countries have an established mechanism at
the level of special representatives to deal with the border
issue at the political level. "They have completed 12 rounds
of talks. More rounds of talks are to take place," he added
without specifying any exact timeframe for the talks.

The last round of talks was held in Beijing between
National Security Advisor M K Narayanan and Chinese State
Counselor Dai Bingguo in September.

Unable to find a negotiated settlement through the
diplomatic channels, India and China appointed Special
Representatives in June 2003 to address the border issue from
a political perspective of the overall bilateral relations.

India says China is illegally occupying 43,180 sq kms
of Jammu and Kashmir including 5,180 sq km illegally ceded to
Beijing by Islamabad under the Sino-Pakistan boundary
agreement in 1963. On the other hand, China accuses India of
possessing some 90,000 sq km of Chinese territory, mostly in
Arunachal Pradesh.

Mukherjee said India has reiterated the 'one China'
policy on Taiwan and has also helped in the smooth passage of
the (Beijing) Olympic torch peacefully.

The External Affairs Minister said both the countries
have been in touch with each other after the Mumbai terror
attacks, adding that he had a telephonic conversation with the
Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi.

"Therefore on the whole improvement, in relationship
and in different aspects this improvement is visible," he
said.

Reviewing high-level bilateral exchanges during the
year, Mukherjee said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had visited
China twice in 2008-- once bilaterally and the second time to
attend the ASEM summit.

UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi also visited the
communist country during the Olympics. "I myself visited China
on a bilateral visit and my counterpart visited India," he
said.

On the trade front, he said, relationship with China
was improving substantially.

"I think this year our bilateral trade crossed USD 50
billion".

The figure this year is likely to reach between USD 55
and 56 billion, but Mukherjee was confident that it will
cross the USD 60 billion target, which was to be achieved by
2010. PTI