India, China hold talks on border mechanism

Beijing, Mar 6 (PTI) Indian and Chinese officials have held vital consultations here on the newly-established mechanism on border issues. A delegation of Indian officials concluded two rounds of talks today with their Chinese counterparts to discuss the particulars of the newly-established working mechanism for consultation and coordination on India-China border affairs. The mechanism aimed at ensuring peace and tranquillity at the border areas was devised during the 15th round of border talks held in New Delhi in January this year. Meanwhile, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said the two countries should do well on specifics in implementing the agreements on maritime security and border mechanism. Without directly making mention of the talks on the border mechanism, he said at his his annual media conference in Beijing today, "We believe we need to do all these specifics very well in implementation of important agreement reached at the leadership level including conducting consultations between two sides on maritime security and working together to ensure peace and tranquility in China-India border areas". Yang who visited New Delhi last week and met India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and External Affairs Minister S M Krishna said that both the countries want to see continuous, sound and steady growth of their bilateral relations and want to enhance, increase mutual trust and expand cooperation. "I had a thorough exchange of views and meeting of minds with my Indian counterpart on series of aspects including to maintain the momentum of high level exchanges between the two countries, advance the practical cooperation on all fields and intensifying cultural exchanges between the two sides," Yang said answering a question. On a question over apprehensions among China's neighbours about its rise, Yang said China would seek to resolve its differences in a peaceful way. On the South China Sea dispute he said: "We believe that progress has already been made in handling these differences between relevant Asian countries. "And the two sides have reached important consensus on seeking peaceful settlement and pushing forward mutual cooperation". PTI