Bali (Indonesia): China has removed Sikkim as a separate country from its official website, foreign secretary Kanwal Sibal announced on October 8.

This decision was taken by Beijing ahead of the meeting Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee had with his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao on the sidelines of the ongoing ninth Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit.

Describing the meeting between Vajpayee and Wen as highly successful, Sibal said China gave an assurance that it would honour all the commitments give by it during Vajpayee's visit to that country in June 2003.

This was Wen's second meeting with Vajpayee in three months after the Indian Prime Minister's landmark visit to China.

China, the Foreign Secretary said, had earlier listed Sikkim as a separate country on its Foreign Ministry website and "that no longer exists".

Sibal also announced that special political representatives of the two countries – National Security Advisor Brajesh Mishra and senior Chinese Vice Minister in the Foreign Ministry Dai Bingguo – would meet in New Delhi on October 23 to hold talks on the vexed boundary question.

PTI