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India, China bid to ease border row for broader ties

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By Harmeet Shah Singh, CNN
January 17, 2012 -- Updated 1130 GMT (1930 HKT)
New Delhi (CNN) -- India and China were engaged in a new round of dialogue Tuesday to resolve a protracted border dispute between the two Asian neighbors.

Ahead of the talks that began Monday, visiting Chinese state councilor Dai Bingguo noted in an article in an Indian publication that both nations were required to tap what he called a huge potential for cooperation.

"We are now in the second decade of the 21st century. Looking ahead, China-India relations have huge potential and broad space for cooperation," he wrote in the Hindu newspaper.

"What we face is a golden period to grow China-India relations. The world has enough space for China and India to achieve common development, as there are so many areas for us to work together," Dai, who's leading the Chinese delegation in New Delhi for the 15th round of the boundary talks, added in his column published Monday.

The Indian side was led by the country's national security adviser, Shivshankar Menon.

Fifty years ago, the two Asian giants fought a brief but bitter border war in 1962.

Both sides accuse each other of occupying parts of its territory along the Himalayas.

New Delhi, for example, regards Arunachal Pradesh along Tibet as an "integral" and inalienable" part of India. China lays claim to 90,000 square km (34,750 square miles) of land in that mountainous region governed by India.

On its part, India accuses Beijing of "occupying" about 38,000 square km (14,670 square miles) in the Kashmir region. India also alleges Pakistan has ceded 5,180 km (3,220 miles) in Kashmir to China.

India's refuge for the Dalai Lama, has also been a major irritant in its ties with China that calls the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader a "splittist" or someone who advocates separation, a charge he denies.

Still, commerce between the two rising economies has flourished over the years.

Bilateral trade, wrote Dai, has jumped 20 fold in the past decade to $61.7 billion in 2010.

"As neighbors and two big countries with a combined population of 2.5 billion, China and India can join hands, seize the historic opportunity, and work together to further advance our friendship and cooperation," he said.
 

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