Sunday, April 10 2005 20:25 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: In a significant step, India and China will sign an agreement on Guiding Principles on boundary issue when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh holds talks with visiting Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in New Delhi tomorrow (Apr 11, 2005).

The agreement was firmed up during a meeting in New Delhi today (Apr 10) between Special Representatives of the two countries - M K Narayanan and Dai Bingguo.

The talks between Narayanan, National Security Advisor, and Dai, Chinese Executive Vice Foreign Minister, were "fruitful with a view to finalising the documents on Guiding Principles for signatures tomorrow," External Affairs Ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna said in response to a question.

The groundwork for the "political Guiding Principles" was done during last month's meeting between Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran and his Chinese counterpart Wu Dawei in Beijing.

The guiding principles would enable the two countries to resolve the boundary issue in a mutually acceptable manner, official sources said.

The meeting is the first one between Dai and Narayanan, who was appointed the Special Representative to boundary talks last month following the death of his predecessor J N Dixit.

Wen has already expressed confidence that the boundary issue could be resolved by the two countries in a mutually acceptable way.

He had recently said that as long as the two sides acted in the spirit of mutual understanding and mutual accommodation and respect history while taking reality into account, they would be able to find a mutually acceptable solution to the boundary question through negotiations on an equal footing.

During the meeting, both sides agreed that the next round of talks between the two special representatives will be held in Beijing at a mutually acceptable date.