As India prepares to approach the Nuclear Suppliers Group soon, Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon said this understanding would have a positive impact. “China is a member of the NSG and we hope this will have implications on its approach there. However, we are not yet approaching friends for support in the NSG,” said Menon.

Similarly, China this time agreed to specifically mention the UN Security Council while reaffirming its stated position of endorsing India’s aspirations at the international stage. “The Chinese side understands and supports India’s aspirations to play a greater role in the United Nations, including in the Security Council,” stated the vision document.

Though the forward movement is subtle and incremental, Menon said this was an encouraging sign and sought to infer the statement as moving closer to supporting India’s key aspirational goals. He added there was a clear indication that Beijing was willing to take the relationship to a “new stage”.

On the contentious boundary question, sources said, India has sought dates for an early meeting of the experts group that was formed to clarify perceptions along the Line of Actual Control at the official level. However, China is yet to respond with dates. This, sources added, would help address much of the suspicion arising from recent troop movements.

Beijing, for its part, continues to lay stress on improving military-to-military contact as this, too, would act as an important confidence-building measure. In this context, both sides agreed to hold a meeting of border personnel in the “very near future” at Chang La, Lipulekh, in the Western Sector. It may be noted that so far these meetings are held at three other points in the Middle and Eastern sectors. It’s learnt that there is an effort underway to resolve the doubts arising from Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi’s remark on settled populations made to External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee last year. National Security Advisor M K Narayanan and Chinese Vice-Minister Dai Bingguo will hold informal discussions tomorrow in an effort to find a resolution to settle this misperception.

... contd.