India and China have decided “not to push the pace” of their boundary negotiations and resolve the issue “step-by-step”, external affairs minister Salman Khurshid has said.
Mr Khurshid, during an interview to a delegation of Chinese journalists, said, “There is our common endeavour and effort to move step-by-step toward resolving our boundary issue. I think we can say with satisfaction the special representatives and other mechanisms in place are moving steadily.” “We have decided not to push the pace so that it gives way rather than continuing to make progress,” he said, ahead of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s planned visit to Beijing in October.
India asserts that the boundary dispute covered about 4,000 kilometres, while China claims that it is confined to about 2,000 kilometres to the area of Arunachal Pradesh.
Mr Khurshid also sought to allay China’s anxieties over India’s close relations with the United States and Japan, saying both these countries were not asking New Delhi to participate in an encircling manoeuvre against China.