Border row remains biggest hurdle for better India, China ties

Not too long ago, Gegong Apang, Chief Minister of the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, applied for a visa to attend a seminar in Beijing. But the Chinese embassy in New Delhi informed him that he didn't require a visa as the people of Arunachal Pradesh were Chinese nationals anyway.

Taken aback, the baffled politician consulted the Indian Foreign Ministry, only to be told to cancel the trip.

Strategically located Arunachal Pradesh - which China still claims as its territory - figures high on the agenda of new a round of bilateral talks which begin this Thursday in New Delhi to resolve a festering border dispute between the world's two most populous countries.

Expectations are high about the talks between Foreign Affairs Vice-Minister Dai Bingguo and India's National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra, as the two men are considered very close to Premier Wen Jiabao and Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee respectively.

The two premiers took the key decision to upgrade the border talks to the political level during Mr Vajpayee's June visit to China, after more than 15 years of meetings of a joint working group, comprising foreign ministry and defence officials, failed to resolve the land dispute over which the two nations went to war in 1962.

Since then, the nuclear neighbours have failed to demarcate a border, with the post-conflict Line of Actual Control (LOC) identifying their respective territories. Tensions flared again in 1986 when the two armies clashed in Arunachal Pradesh's Sumdorong Chu valley.