Yang continues as Special Representative on border talks with India

By Gaurav Sharma

Beijing, Nov 10 (IANS) The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Friday hinted that the country's top diplomat, Yang Jiechi, will continue as its Special Representative on border talks with India as of now, saying it has not heard of any change.

According to media speculation, China is likely to appoint a new State Councillor and Special Representative in March. Yang, the incumbent, was re-elected to the Communist Party's powerful Central Committee last month.

This means he might be promoted and may be succeeded by China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

"I have not heard about any changes in the Special Representative on the boundary issue on the Chinese side," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said when asked about the likely change.

China's Parliament session will be held in March when there will be a bureaucratic reshuffle.

Yang will hold the 20th round of border talks with India's National Security Advisor, who is India's Special Representative on the border talks with China.

The next border talks are likely to be held in December in New Delhi.

Hua said this "mechanism is working very well and two sides will decide the date and time of this year's meeting in due course.

"As you know, both the Chinese and Indian leaders attach great importance to the boundary issue and we have made great efforts for many years to resolve this issue," Hua said.

The meeting will come after an over two-month military stand-off between India and China in the Sikkim section this year.

India and China, which fought a war in 1962, have a de-facto boundary of 3,488 km.

While China claims India's Arunachal Pradesh as its own, New Delhi lays claim to Aksai Chin that is held by Beijing.

(Gaurav Sharma is the Beijing-based correspondent of IANS. He can be reached at sharmagaurav71@gmail.com)