Border row with China knotty: India

In the backdrop of a war of words over Arunachal Pradesh, India has said the recent developments have intensified the need for the two countries to resolve the outstanding issues with “more seriousness and determination”.

Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao said the boundary issue between India and China was “one of the most complicated” disputes in the world and both countries were determined to resolve it.

“We must take a realistic view that there are differences, there are differences when it comes to perceiving the Line of Actual Control (LoAC) in the border areas. And there are differences also in terms of conflicting territorial claims,” she told All India Radio.

Referring to the recent “focus” on incursions by Chinese troops and to the Arunachal Pradesh issue, she said it “intensifies the need for the two sides to really sit down to resolve these issues with even more seriousness and determination”.

On the talks to address the boundary question, Rao said there was “still a lot of ground that we have to cover in terms of narrowing differences and building more understanding. But the progress in this regard is being made, albeit slowly but it is being made surely”.

Regarding Chinese protest over the visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Arunachal Pradesh, she said India takes these seriously.

“Of course we take this seriously, and we have been very very particular and very clear and unambivalent in expressing our position to the Chinese. In that way we have said that Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of India, it is an inalienable part of India,” Rao said.

At the same time, she said the protests by China should be seen in the context of the unresolved boundary question between the two countries. “We are very intensively focused on this issue,” said Rao, who was India’s ambassador to China before being appointed as foreign secretary in July.

Terming the border issue as “one of the most complicated boundary questions that exist anywhere in the world”, she said: “I think it is a good development and it is a positive factor that both countries are determined to resolve these issues.”

Both countries, Rao said, were convinced that there was no other way to resolve the boundary issue without dialogue.

To press the point, she quoted late prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru saying in Parliament in 1962 that “we cannot march to Peking”.

She also pointed to the positive aspects, saying the relationship with China has developed in many other areas.