PM asks Wen to accept reality

India suggested to China today "mutual accommodation" based on "ground realities" to resolve the boundary dispute, a reference in particular to Beijing's claim over Arunachal Pradesh.

In his first interaction with Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao here on the sidelines of the 10th Asean summit, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said: "We shall show accommodation but an accommodation must take into account ground realities."

"Mutual understanding should be complete and mutual accommodation should be realistic," Singh told Wen during their 40-minute meeting, according to National Security Adviser JN Dixit.

Elaborating on Singh's remarks regarding "ground realities" to resolve the boundary question, Dixit said it referred to the Chinese advocacy in Arunachal Pradesh, indicating that China should accept the North-eastern state as an integral part of India.

China claims sovereignty over a large section of Arunachal Pradesh, which shares a 1,030-km border with the Tibet region.

Acknowledging that the bou-ndary issue was a complex one, Wen said "it may take time to resolve it" but what was needed was "confidence, patience and political will".

Observing that current Sino-Indian ties were in the best period of time in the history, Wen said China hoped to handle ties with India "from a strategic and overall point of view."

Describing the boundary issue as a major aspect of the Sino-Indian relations, he said the talks between special representatives of the two countries to resolve the problem had yielded positive results.

"We believe that if abiding by the principle of equal consultation, mutual understanding and mutual accommodation, the two sides can find solution to this issue through sincere negotiations," China's official news agency Xinhua quoted him as saying.

Singh said the four rounds of official-level talks between the two sides were "useful".