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India, China begin security dialogue

BEIJING: India and China began their first ever security dialogue in Beijing on Monday, diplomatic sources told AFP.

The Indian Foreign Ministry announced the dialogue last week, but the Indian embassy here declined to provide any details or say who was representing the Indian side.

China has made no comment on the talks.

Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman R.S Jassal last week said the talks would be "broad-based" and that "international security issues" would be discussed.

China and India agreed to the talks during Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh's visit to Beijing last June, Jassal said, adding the two sides would also discuss nuclear proliferation and other issues.

However, he made it clear that the long-running Sino-Indian border disputes would not be discussed.

India says China still holds 40,000 square kilometres (16,000 square miles) of its territory in Kashmir, while Beijing lays claim to part of the far-eastern Indian state of Arunanchal Pradesh.

The disputes drew the two countries into a brief but bloody war in 1962. Bilateral relations took a nasty downturn after India conducted a series of underground nuclear tests in May, 1998.

Beijing was furious after India justified the tests by pointing to a perceived threat from China's nuclear arsenal.

Chinese President Jiang Zemin visited India in 1996, but the last major Indian visit to China was by Premier P.V. Narasimha Rao in September 1993.

Indian President K.R. Narayanan plans to visit China in May to mark the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations with Beijing. AFP