China's negotiator of Sino-India boundary dispute retires

BEIJING: Dai Bingguo, China's long standing negotiator of Sino-India boundary dispute, retired today as the new administration headed by President Xi Jinping took over power.

As Special Representative of China, Dai, 71 conducted 15 rounds boundary talks with several Indian officials, including Brajesh Mishra, J N Dixit, M K Narayanan and present National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon.

Dai ensured that details of the progress achieved between the two countries in 15 rounds of talks were recorded by both sides to avoid any confusion between the two sides, specially for his successor and former Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi.

During the Dai's time the two countries also worked out a new boundary mechanism to avoid any clashes between the forces of the two countries while patrolling the disputed border regions.

India asserts that the border dispute covered about 4000 km, while China claims that it confined to about 2000 km to the area of Arunachal Pradesh, which it refers as Southern Tibet.