China, India to resume border talks Sunday

BEIJING: A long-delayed round of sensitive border talks between Chinese and Indian diplomats will take place in India from Sunday to Tuesday, the foreign ministry in Beijing said.

Chinese State Councilor Dai Bingguo and Indian National Security Adviser Shiv Shankar Menon will attend the 15th meeting between special representatives on Sino-Indian border issues, the ministry said on its website.

China and India share a 2,000-kilometre (1,200-mile) border which has never been formally delimited.

The talks were cancelled in November after reports that Beijing objected to a scheduled speech in New Delhi by Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, who China's one-party Communist government labels a separatist.

The Dalai Lama fled to India in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule. He later founded the government in exile in the northern Indian town Dharamshala after being offered refuge.

China and India began discussing border issues in the 1980s and have signed two agreements to maintain peace and stability in frontier areas, in 1993 and 1996.