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India and China to clarify disputed border

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Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan shakes hand with Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh, right, prior to their official talks in New Delhi Saturday, July 22, 2000. Jiaxuan is on a two-day official visit to India to discuss bilateral and border issue between the two countries. India remained concerned over the transfer of missile technology from China to Pakistan. (AP Photo/Ajit Kumar)

July 23, 2000 

NEW DELHI (AP) - India and China on Saturday agreed to expedite demarcation of their land border that remains disputed since their 1962 war.

A beginning has to be made to speed up the pace of negotiations with India on the clarification of the Line of Actual Control that separates the two nations, said visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan, United News of India news agency said.

Tang was talking to reporters after meeting with his Indian counterpart Jaswant Singh in New Delhi.

Both countries are keen on thinning hundreds of thousands of troops positioned on their disputed border, but a clear delineation of the disputed territory must precede any such move.

Tang is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee later Saturday.

India and China signed agreements in 1993 and 1996 committing themselves to respecting the existing cease-fire line, pending an eventual solution to the boundary dispute.

The two countries fought a 21-day war in 1962 and have been holding talks since 1988 to settle the boundary dispute.

India says China illegally occupies 14,500 square miles (37,700 square kilometers) that it seized in the war in the northwest, a barren Himalayan region adjoining India's Kashmir state.

	Tibetans in exile in India hold a demonstration near Parliament House against the visit of Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan in New Delhi Saturday, July 22, 2000. Jiaxuan is on two-day official visit to India to discuss bilateral and border issues between the two countries. India remained concerned over the transfer of missile technology from China to Pakistan. (AP Photo/Ajit Kumar)

Beijing says India is holding 36,000 square miles (93,000 square kilometers) of Chinese territory in what is now India's eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh.

India also is concerned about the transfer of missile technology from China to Pakistan, India's hostile neighbor.

But the Chinese foreign minister said on Saturday that his country enjoyed "a normal kind of military relationship" with Pakistan and it was not directed against any third country, especially India.

Tang's visit follows the weeklong tour of Indian President Kocheril Raman Narayanan to China in June.

Tang flies Saturday night to Karachi, Pakistan.

Two-way trade between Indian and China is valued at dlrs two billion a year.