Beyond all the populist and occasionally irresponsible rhetoric in New Delhi on Tibet, responsible elements in India recognise that Sino-Tibetan reconciliation and a final boundary settlement with China are intertwined. Progress on one front would make it a lot easier on the other.

To be sure, many Chinese analysts share the view that an accommodation of Tibetan aspirations could help transform Beijing’s relations with India and the subcontinent. Yet China is finding it difficult to temper its very traditional notions of sovereignty and territoriality over Tibet. Beijing has not responded to some creative Indian proposals seeking to shift the focus away from exchange of territories to building a cooperative Indo-Tibetan frontier. China, instead, has gone to extreme lengths to reaffirm its sovereignty over Arunachal Pradesh, especially on the Tawang tract. The same obsession appears to be threatening the negotiations with the Dalai Lama.

Until recently, neither Beijing nor Dharmashala was willing to reveal the state of play in their negotiations. After a series of recent media articles in China offering Beijing’s version of the story, the Tibetans too have gone public. In a major speech at the Asia Centre in Paris last month, Lodi Gyari spoke of the problems in the talks with China . One important issue relates to the characterisation of the past relationship between Tibet and China.

The Dalai Lama is ready to recognise the current reality that Tibet is a part of China. Beijing wants him to say Tibet “was always” part of China. The Tibetan leader insists that he can’t falsify the past; he wants both sides to avoid debates on history and construct a mutually beneficial future.

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