China and India will hold their ninth round of boundary issue
talks today and tomorrow in New Delhi, the Foreign Ministry said
yesterday.
Deputy Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo, as China's special
representative, will lead a delegation to attend the talks,
ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told a regular news briefing.
The two sides will maintain a discussion framework on solving
the boundary issue according to consensus reached by leaders of the
two neighboring countries, Liu said.
China hopes some progress could be made at "this very important
meeting," he added.
The Sino-Indian talks on the boundary issue between special
representatives of ministerial level started in New Delhi in
October 2003.
During President Hu Jintao's visit to India last November, the
two countries signed a joint declaration and vowed to resolve the
boundary issue through peaceful means and in a fair, reasonable,
mutually acceptable and proactive manner.
The statement proposed that the special representatives complete
finalizing an appropriate framework for a final package settlement
covering all sectors of the China-India boundary at an early
date.
Commenting on the talks between Indian Minister for External
Affairs Pranab Mukherjee and his Pakistani counterpart Khurshid
Mehmood Kasuri, Liu said China, as the common neighbor, friend and
partner of India and Pakistan, welcomed the positive progress in
their relations and sincerely hoped that the two nations would
solve their disputes through friendly consultation, to help jointly
promote peace and prosperity in South Asia.
Mukherjee made a two-day visit to Pakistan Saturday and Sunday.
During the visit, the two sides agreed to launch the fourth round
of Composite Dialogue on March 13-14 in Islamabad, and hold the
first meeting of the joint anti-terrorism mechanism before the end
of March.
Liu confirmed that Christopher Hill, the US chief negotiator to
the six-party nuclear talks, will visit Beijing
this weekend.
Describing Hill as an important working partner for China in
furthering the six-party talks, Liu said the US envoy will meet
with his Chinese counterpart and Vice Foreign Minister Wu
Dawei.
But Liu declined to give further details on Hill's visit. "The
Chinese and US sides are working on the date and schedule (of
Hill's visit)," he said.
Hill, who is the US assistant secretary of state, will visit
Seoul on January 19, Beijing on January 20 and Tokyo on January 21,
according to the US State Department.
The six parties -- namely China, the US, Japan, Russia, North
and South Korea -- convened their latest negotiations in Beijing
last December, their first since North Korea conducted an
underground nuclear test in October.
However, the talks ended without any breakthrough. The envoys
agreed to resume the negotiations as early as possible, but no
exact date was set.
Turning to Japan's ambition of becoming a permanent member of
the UN Security Council, Liu said that China's position on UN
reform remained unchanged.
He made the comments when asked whether there had been an
exchange of views on UN reform between Premier Wen Jiabao and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo
Abe in the Philippines.
"We support necessary and reasonable reform of the UN Security
Council aimed at strengthening its authority and efficiency.
Representation of developing countries, particularly the African
countries, should be increased in the Security Council," he
said.
Liu said various parties still hold different views on the
reform and he hoped the member states would conduct sufficient
consultations in order to find a solution accepted by the majority
of countries.
In another development, Liu said China is delighted to see the
major progress of Nepal's peace process, and hopes that concerned
parties of Nepal will keep the peace process going in a bid to
benefit the Nepali people and contribute to regional peace,
stability and development.
The Nepali interim legislature was set up on Monday evening
after the promulgation of constitution by the former House of
Representatives, which was dissolved shortly after its unanimous
approval of the interim constitution.
(Xinhua News Agency January 17, 2007)
