Thursday, September 22 2005 15:35 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Beijing: China today (Sept 22, 2005) expressed optimism that the upcoming round of Special Representative-level border negotiations with India could yield a 'fair' and 'just' solution based on the Political Guiding Principles established by the two countries.

"We believe that as long as we follow the Political Guiding Principles and follow the spirit of equal consultation, mutual accommodation and understanding, we can find a fair and just solution acceptable to both parties," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters here.

Announcing the date for the sixth round of boundary talks between National Security Advisor M K Narayanan and Chinese Vice Foreign Minister, Dai Bingguo, Qin said the two Special Representatives will hold talks here from September 26-27.

Qin said the two sides will base their talks on the Political Guiding Principles on resolving the border issue and "proceed from the overall interests of bilateral political relations, discuss the framework for resolving the issue between us."

The Special Representative mechanism was created during the June 2003 visit of the then Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, to China.

The two sides agreed to each appoint a Special Representative to explore, from the political perspective of the overall bilateral relationship, the framework of a boundary settlement.

India and China had agreed on the Political Guiding Principles on settling the border issue during Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's visit to India in April this year.

The upcoming round of boundary talks comes soon after Chinese President Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met for the fourth time this year. The two leaders met on September 14 in New York on the sidelines of the 60th anniversary of the UN and had discussed the pending boundary issue between the two nations.

During their meeting, Hu, also General Secretary of the ruling Communist Party of China, had said that the negotiations on China-India border issue have made positive headways, the two Governments signed the Agreement on the Political Guidelines for the Settlement of Border Issue and as a result peace and stability have been maintained in the border area.

According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Hu expressed hope that both sides should push for the fair and reasonable settlement of the boundary issue at the earliest date possible according to the political guidelines agreed upon by the two countries.

The India-China boundary issue has been lingering for many decades, hindering the speedy development of bilateral ties, analysts say.

India says China is illegally occupying 43,180 sq kms of Jammu and Kashmir including 5,180 sq km illegally ceded to Beijing by Islamabad 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, mostly in Arunachal Pradesh.