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Anil K Joseph in Beijing
A crucial meeting of the India-China Expert Group on the boundary issue, scheduled for this month, is likely to compare maps of both sides and exchange views on the 545-km 'middle sector' on the Line of Actual Control, official sources in Beijing said.
India and China first exchanged detailed maps of the less disputed 'middle sector' of the LAC at the EG's eighth meeting on November 13 last year.
According to Chinese foreign ministry sources, the ninth round of the EG talks will be held in New Delhi in the second half of June.
"As per the agreement the two governments have signed and according to the spirit of understanding reached between the nation's presidents, the two sides will exchange opinions about clarifying the LAC and establishing trust," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Sun Yuxi said.
"We believe this meeting will be helpful in maintining peace in the area along the LAC," Yuxi told PTI.
Last November, after the two sides exchanged maps of the middle sector, External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh said India and China would compare the two maps and move towards the ultimate objective of drawing the LAC on the ground.
A similar exercise is likely to take place on the western and eastern sectors of the LAC. The western sector covers Ladakh while the eastern sector covers Arunachal Pradesh.
The exchange of maps for the first time has been viewed as a "significant" event in resolving the vexed India-China boundary dispute.
Both sides have been studying the exchanged maps of the 'middle sector' that stretch 545 km from Himachal Pradesh to Uttaranchal to pinpoint the differences, which could be taken up at this month's meeting which makes recommendations to the Joint Working Group.
The JWG has met 12 times since then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi initiated the process during his visit to China in 1988.
India asserts that China is illegally occupying 43,180 sq kms of Jammu and Kashmir including 5,180 sq km illegally ceded to Beijing by Pakistan under the Sino-Pakistan boundary agreement in 1963. On the other hand, China accuses India of possessing some 90,000 sq km of Chinese territory.
Official sources said the Indo-China border has been peaceful due to measures taken by both sides over the years.
"The confidence building agreements of 1993 and 1996 are working well," an official source said, adding that bilateral military-to-military exchanges have resumed since they were frozen by China following India's nuclear tests in May 1998.
Air Chief Marshal A Y Tipnis and GOC-in-Chief, Eastern Command, Lieutenant General H R S Kalkat visited China recently and held talks with senior officials of the Chinese People's Liberation Army.
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