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Swaran Singh in Beijing/Shanghai
The long awaited meeting of the India-China Experts Group in Beijing last week is likely to spur official parleys, which had been stonewalled for sometime by the military standoff on the India-Pakistan borders.
The EG was formed in 1994 to provide technical expertise to the more generic India-China Joint Working Group to discuss the boundary issue.
Given the lowering of tensions between India and Pakistan since last few weeks, both sides are likely to schedule other overdue meetings of critical forums like the third India-China Security Dialogue, the India-China Joint Business Council and the 13th meeting of the India-China Joint Working Group.
The two sides are also busy preparing for the expected visit to China by Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in October this year.
The EG consists of experts from defence ministry, home ministry, Survey of India Office and the external affairs ministry.
Given the change in mood in Sino-Indian ties, especially following a flurry of visits by senior officials from both sides, this momentum had resulted in two sides exchanging sample maps for the middle sector during June 2000.
The two countries also decided to exchange similar maps for the western sector before the end of this year.
While External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh has visited China in July 1998 and in April this year, China's Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan (June 2000) as well as their former premier Li Peng (January 2001) their current Prime Minister Zhu Rongzi (January this year) have visited India.
Experts in Beijing believe that the success of the 12th round of the experts group should be seen as a boost to Sino-Indian ties and the two sides should be now able to keep their plan of exchanging sample maps for the western sector before end of this year, as well sample maps for the more complicated eastern sector next year.
Local media described the talks as 'extremely cordial and frank manner' and said the main issue was the demarcation of the Line of Actual Control on the western sector. The formal exchange of sample maps for western sector is now expected to happen during the next meeting of Joint Working Group, which is likely anytime now.
However, this optimism in Beijing does not seem to find an echo in New Delhi. Some reports have described this meeting as a 'failure', which lends credence to skeptics who believe that the difficulties in the western sector are bound to be far more complex than those faced in the smaller and less complicated middle sector of India-China boundary.
Nevertheless, whether the two sides will be able to keep the promises made will depend not on any new miracles, but simply on the level of attention that the two sides may be willing and capable to pay to this exercise.
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