Wednesday, January 11 2006 09:32 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Beijing: India and China have agreed to move ahead pro-actively on outstanding issues between them and reached 'important consensus' on resolving the vexed boundary problem for which their Special Representatives will hold the next round of talks in late February in India.

The decision on the seventh round of talks on boundary issue was reached when visiting Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran met Chinese Executive Vice Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo, who is also the Chinese Special Representative to the India-China boundary negotiations, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Kong Quan told reporters here.

Saran, who is here for the second round of India-China Strategic Dialogue an exercise aimed at enhancing their cooperation and coordination in regional and global issues of common concern, told Indian journalists separately that the two countries have agreed to move ahead pro-actively on the outstanding issues.

"We are now working together in the next round to try and evolve a framework for the boundary settlement. Both sides are committed to seek an early settlement on the basis of the Political Parameters and Guiding Principles for Settlement of India-China Boundary Question which were adopted last year," he said.

"It was reaffirmed in our meetings that what we are looking for is a political settlement adopting a package approach and proceeding from a long-term and strategic perspective of our relationship," Saran said.

Commenting on Saran's meeting with Dai, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong said, "The two sides reached important consensus that the two governments will proceed from the overall situation of developing friendly relations between us and make positive efforts to promote the process of border issue talks."

He said the two sides also agreed that the Political Guiding Principles signed in April 2005 between the two governments would be yardstick by which the border negotiations will proceed further.

"We have agreed specifically that in late February, in India, we will hold the seventh round of border issue talks between the Special Representatives," Kong said, adding that the specific agenda will be fixed through diplomatic channels.

"However, the time would be late February," he said on the upcoming meeting of Dai with National Security Advisor M K Narayanan, who is also India's Special Representative.

Saran, while briefing Indian journalists about his talks with the Chinese side as well as the content of the second round of Strategic Dialogue, pointed out that now that India and China have established a strategic partnership, this particular aspect should also be brought to bear when resolving the boundary issue.

"The idea is to go beyond claims and counterclaims between the two sides," he said while describing the Guiding Principles as a 'very practical' tool to resolve the boundary issue.

Since India-China relations have acquired a certain strategic dimension in the emerging global scenario and both sides have established the Guiding Principles, both sides should look into how to apply these to the actual ground situation, he said.