China on Thursday for the first time publicly said “mutual concessions and adjustments” were a must to reach an early deal on the vexed boundary issue with India for which the two governments have set up a Working Group to prepare a framework agreement.

China would make joint efforts with India under relevant political guiding principles and it hoped the two countries could understand each other, “make mutual concessions and adjustments” so as to strive for an early agreement on a framework which would be fair, rational and acceptable for both sides on resolving the border issue, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi told External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee here.

Yang said China would firmly support the Chinese and Indian Special Representatives’ work on resolving the bilateral border issue, the official Xinhua news agency reported, carrying the Chinese version of the meeting.

He said thanks to the concerted efforts by both sides, bilateral ties had maintained healthy development.

Earlier, Mukherjee told reporters after his 50-minute meeting with Yang that India and China had established a Working Group to prepare a framework for the settlement of their boundary issue.

The 11th round of talks between Special Representatives of India and China held in Beijing was successful and they had decided to set up a Working Group to prepare a framework for the resolution of the boundary issue, Mukherjee said.

“Let us wait for the recommendations of the Working Group,” Mukherjee, who was here to attend the third standalone trilateral meeting of Foreign Ministers of India, China and Russia, said in his brief comments.

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