India, China hold talks on boundary dispute in New Delhi

NEW DELHI: India and China today held the 18th round of talks on the the vexed boundary issue, the first such meeting after Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power last year.

Special Representative on the Boundary Question and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval held talks with his Chinese counterpart and State Councillor Yang Jiechi.

The fresh round of discussion on the issue is taking place nearly six months after Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit here.

The high-profile visit in September was overshadowed by the intrusion of Chinese troops at Chumar in Ladakh region. It was resolved with simultaneous withdrawal by both sides after Xi's visit.

The talks on the boundary issue took place ahead of Modi's first visit to China expected to be before May-end.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, who visited China last month to make preparations for the Prime Minister's visit, spoke about the need for an "out of the box" solution on the border issue in order to not leave it for future generations.

China says the border dispute is confined only to 2,000 kms mostly in Arunachal Pradesh whereas India asserts that the dispute covered the western side of the border spanning to about 4,000 kms, especially the Aksai Chin area annexed by China in 1962 war.