India, China hold talks amid row over border issue

Arunachal Pradesh, Tibet and the recent ill-treatment meted out to Indian traders by Chinese authorities were some of the crucial issues that figured in Thursday's talks in Delhi between the foreign ministers of India and China, which also focused on an upcoming summit of major emerging economies in Delhi.

"Every possible issue that is raised whenever India-China dialogue takes place were raised and we have understood each other's position and we have understood the perspective and we will continue to exchange these," External Affairs Minister S
M Krishna told reporters after the meeting with his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi.

He was asked if the issues of recent visit of Defence Minister A K Antony to Arunachal Pradesh, which led to heated exchanges between the two countries and self immolations by 'free Tibet' protesters, were raised during the meeting.

Yang, who arrived on Wednesday evening, kicked off his brief official visit with an official dinner by Krishna last night.

Krishna was also asked if he raised the issue of traders with Yang.

"I did raise the traders' issue," he said, without giving the details.

On the reports that the Siang (Brahmaputra) river originating from Tibet was suddenly found to have almost dried up at a town in Arunachal Pradesh, allegedly due to dam construction by China, Krishna said the ambassador to China, who has been apprised of the reports, will be looking into it.

Krishna also referred to his statement in Parliament over China constructing a dam at Zangmu in the middle reaches of Yarlung Tsango (as the Brahmaputra is called in Tibet) and said the satellite imagery of the site has only shown that it was a run of the river hydro-electric project.

Krishna and Yang also focused on preparations for a summit of the BRICS nations-- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa -- in Delhi at the end of March.