Placing boundary talks on the front burner, New Delhi has suggested to Beijing that the designated Special Representatives (SRs) meet on the "package settlement" before Chinese President Hu Jintao starts his India visit this month.

Government sources said that New Delhi has offered November 9-10 as possible dates for the meeting between National Security Advisor M K Narayanan and Deputy Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo to set the tone for Hu Jintao`s four-day visit, starting November 20. New Delhi now waits for word from Beijing on the dates. The SRs have already held eight rounds of talks and crucial political parameters for boundary settlement were agreed to during Chinese PM Wen Jiabao`s visit last April.

Though Beijing signalled to a visiting CPM delegation that a boundary solution could take time and it wanted to focus on bilateral trade for now, New Delhi is keen to push the political settlement on the agreed parameters. It is learnt that Beijing, at the SR-level talks, has conveyed that it would try to accommodate the Indian position on the western sector (Aksai Chin) if New Delhi reciprocated in the eastern sector (Arunachal Pradesh). But New Delhi has pointed to Article 7 of the agreed political parameters to push its case in the eastern sector. The Article says that the two sides “shall safeguard due interests of their settled populations” in the border areas. This backs the Indian position on Tawang. Incidentally, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi is likely to visit Tawang on November 6 for the Buddha Mahotsava.

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