New Delhi:
India and China today began crucial talks on the boundary question on a positive note with Chinese leader Dai Bingguo saying the two sides have "scaled much height" and "produced some results" on the framework of settlement of the issue.
Speaking at a banquet hosted in his honour by National Security Adviser (NSA) Shivshankar Menon, Dai said Sino-Indian ties have made "substantial progress", "can work miracles" together and hoped the two nations will never go to war again.
Dai and Menon kicked off the two-day 15th meeting of the Special Representatives (SR) on the India-China boundary question which the NSA described as "useful".
"In the China-India boundary negotiations, although we have not yet arrived at the summit -- that is we have not reached full agreement on the framework of settlement of the boundary question -- but we have scaled much height and made much progress," Dai said.
"I think we can tell the people of both countries that we had not been lazy in this exercise and we have produced some results for our work," he said without elaborating.
Dai and Menon are discussing putting in place a mechanism for border management mooted by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao during his visit to India in 2010. Former NSA Brajesh Mishra, during whose tenure the SR mechanism was launched in 2003, former foreign secretary Shyam Saran were among those present at the banquet.
The meeting of SRs was to be held in November last year but had to be postponed after China protested Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama's participation in a religious
function in the capital around the time of the talks.
India had then rejected China's demand for cancellation of the function leading to the postponement of the talks.
Noting that Sino-Indian ties have made "fast and substantial progress" since the beginning of this century, Dai said there was great potential yet to be exploited and the relationship will have an "even brighter future".
"I hope both sides will make even bigger effort to break new ground and liberate our thinking and try to unleash the energies of 2.5 billion Chinese and Indian people on promoting cooperation so that we can have more cooperation and make great advances in our relationship," he said.
Dai said China and India should carry out cooperation whereever they can "and then I think we can work miracles".
"I hope that our children and our children's children will always live under the sunshine of peace and friendship and that our two nations will never go to war again," he said.
"We should spend all our resources in taking forward China and India cooperation for the benefit of our people," he said.
Dai said the two countries should play an even greater role in further advancement of bilateral relations, promoting better international affairs and working to establish a more fair and reasonable order.
Menon lauded the contribution made by Dai to the SR mechanism and pointed out that he had outlasted four NSAs since the process was launched in 2003.
The SR mechanism was launched during Brajesh Mishra's tenure as NSA. J N Dixit, who was the NSA in the beginning of UPA-I and his successor M K Narayanan were India's special
representatives on the boundary question. Menon has been the SR since his appointment as NSA.
"Today, we had a very useful round of discussions. Over time the work of SRs has expanded. Not only we discussed the boundary settlement but we also discussed the entire gamut of our relationship and the strategic situation we face around the world," he said.
The dialogue at the level of SRs is a three-stage process which started in 2005 with the declaration of the Guiding Principles and Political Parameters.
The second stage is identifying the framework for resolution of the boundary dispute and the third stage to apply that framework.
The evening was marked with friendly banter between Menon and Dai with the NSA complaining that the Chinese leader had always wanted to travel outside Delhi but preferred to return to Beijing straight after the talks.
Menon said this time round he had invited some of Dai's old friends most of whom he knew in one capacity or the other. Also present at the banquet were diplomats Sudhir Devare, Gautam Bambawale, India's envoy in Beijing S Jaishankar and former Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs Nalin Surie. Dai said he had travelled to quite a few cities across India like Bangalore, Hyderabad, Khajuraho, Chennai and Kolkata.
On a lighter note, Dai said during his eight years as Special Representative his hair had turned from black to grey and he would continue to work with his Indian friends to scale the summit of this mountain.
"Over the decades, I have devoted my great personal energy for the development of our relationship consistent with the Chinese policies. This I say not in diplomatic language
but from the bottom of my heart," he said.