New Delhi
29 May 2007
China will not indicate why it denied visa to Gonesh Koyu, an Indian
Administrative Service (IAS) official from Arunachal Pradesh, or whether it is willing to
reconsider its decision to deny him visa. All it will say for now is that bilateral
differences should not be brought to the fore till a fair and reasonable settlement of the
boundary question is reached.
Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Jiang Yu has said that China holds that the
boundary question should be settled fairly and reasonably at an early date through
friendly consultations. "China welcomes the friendly exchanges between the two
nations," Jiang told PTI. "We welcome the Indian personnel to come and visit China and
participate in the training programme."
Mr Gonesh Koyu and 106 other IAS officials were to leave on a two-week trip to China as
part of the training of officials of the level of joint secretary. They were to leave on May
26 and were supposed to spend a week at the Beijing National Academy of
Administration and a week in Shanghai.
The Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson's assertion comes barely a day Chinese
Foreign Minister Jang Yiechi met with Minister of External Affairs Pranab Mukherjee at
Hamburg in Germany on the sidelines of the Asia Europe Meeting (ASEM) foreign
ministers meeting. The Ministry of External Affairs has said that the two leaders
reviewed the progress of talks on the boundary question.
This was Mr Mukherjee's first meeting with the new Chinese foreign minister. On the
occasion, they decided to convene an early meeting on the recently-established Defence
Dialogue Mechanism and continue high-level contacts. "The discussion touched upon
the boundary question and it was agreed that the special representatives will continue
with their work with encouragement and guidance of the political leadership," the
spokesman of the Ministry of External Affairs said.
The special representative of India, National Security Adviser MK Narayanan, and his
Chinese counterpart have held 10 rounds of negotiations and have worked out the
political guiding principles to resolve the border issue. Both sides have kept mum on the
outcome of these in-camera negotiations, which have so far come out with the "guiding
principles" to settle the boundary issue that has hampered the normalisation of India-
China relations. The guiding principles commit both India and China sides to arriving at a
"package settlement" of the boundary question in a spirit of mutual respect and mutual
understanding.
Minister of External Affairs Pranab Mukherjee has told the Lok Sabha that China is in
illegal occupation of about 38,000 square kilometres in Jammu and Kashmir. In addition,
under the so-called Sino-Pakistan Boundary Agreement of 1963, Pakistan illegally ceded
5,180 sq km of Indian territory in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir to China. China also
illegally claims approximately 90,000 sq km of Indian territory in Arunachal Pradesh, and
about 2,000 sq km in the Middle Sector. "Government have conveyed to the Chinese
side that Jammu and Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh are integral parts of India," he told
the House.
Chinese Ambassador to India Sun Yuxi triggered a diplomatic row, just ahead of Chinese
President Hu Jintao's visit to India in November last year, contending Arunachal Pradesh
as "Chinese territory".
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