Taking stock of "lessons learnt" from the recent Chinese incursion in the Ladakh region, India and China today decided to strengthen the mechanism to prevent such incidents in future and to "push forward" the talks for an early settlement of the contentious border dispute.
This emerged after two rounds of talks between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Chinese counterpart Li Keqiang here. The two had first met at Singh's residence last night and followed that up with full delegation talks this morning.
Their "candid" talks went off well with both sides agreeing to maintain peace and tranquility along the border and also signing as many as eight pacts including on trade, culture and water resources.
Other contentious issues raised during the talks were Chinese construction of dams on Brahmaputra river and trade imbalance of over USD 27 billion in favour of China.
Noting that they "took stock of lessons learnt from the recent incident in the Western Sector, when existing mechanisms proved their worth", Singh, at a joint press event with Li, said, "We have tasked our Special Representatives (SRs) to consider further measures that may be needed to maintain peace and tranquility along the border.
"We agreed that our SRs will meet soon to continue discussions, seeking early agreement on a framework for a fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable boundary settlement."
On his part, Li, while admitting that there were "some problems" between the two countries, said, "Both sides believe that, with regard to the boundary question, one that is leftover by history, the two sides have over time established the principles on this question.
"In the meantime, we have worked together to maintain tranquility and peace on the border," Li said, adding, "We need to confront various issues with a broad mind and conduct dialogue on those issues in a mature and sensible way".
The visiting dignitary said both sides believe that "we need to improve the various border related mechanisms that we have put in place and make them more efficient and appropriately manage and resolve our differences."
A joint statement said Singh and Li encouraged their respective SRs "to push forward the process of negotiations and seek a framework for a fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable settlement in accordance with the Agreement on Political Parameters and Guiding Principles".
