Indo-China border talks to begin on Monday

NEW DELHI: India and China will hold their third round of crucial talks between Special Representatives from Monday to expedite the resolution of the vexed border question.
This will be the first time that National Security Adviser and India''s Special Representative J N Dixit will be meeting Executive Vice Foreign Minister and his Chinese counterpart Dai Bingguo.The talks would last for two days.
The last time Dixit had met the Chinese side in official capacity was in Beijing in 1993 as Foreign Secretary in the P V Narasimha Rao Government.
The earlier two rounds of border talks with Dai were held between the then National Security Adviser of NDA Government Brajesh Mishra. The Cabinet Committee on Security had finalised the brief for the meeting on Saturday.
China said during this round, the two sides would have an in-depth exchange of views on the guiding principles that were formulated during the earlier meetings.
The decision to appoint Special Representatives was taken last year during the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee''s visit to China.
Ahead of the crucial Indo-China talks, Dixit had told reporters yesterday that since there is a new government at the Centre, the last two rounds of talks between Mishra and Dai were reviewed and the position finalised about "what we should say to him and we should ask him to inform us".
He said it is an ongoing process and the brief required a high-level political clearance.
Besides Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the meeting was attended by Home Minister Shivraj Patil, External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Finance Minister P Chidambaram, Army Chief N C Vij and top officials.