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.

Meanwhile, the UPA government has set up an inter-ministerial group, comprising the Foreign Secretary, Water Resources Secretary and Power Secretary, to study the infrastructure expansion in Tibet and its impact on India. The group, which first met three months ago, has asked technical experts to prepare a report on the issue that will be shared with the border states concerned and the Environment ministry. Rapid growth in Tibet and its impact on resources like water, hydel power has also been discussed at a Committee of Secretaries meeting last month.