Indian Army Chief of Staff General Joginder Jaswant Singh, upon returning from China where he met with his Chinese counterparts at the end of May, announced that China and India would hold the first ever joint army exercises between the two nations. At the time, this was seen as a clear step forward for two nations that went to war over border issues in 1962 and to this day disagree on the exact boundaries of the two countries. That step forward may have been a half step however, as the Indian foreign minister was quoted as saying that “India has told China that it will not part with portions of the state of Arunachal Pradesh to settle a decades-old border dispute.”

Just a few weeks ago, it was all looking so promising when The Jamestown Foundation reported on the announced joint exercises in their biweekly China Brief:

Given China’s concerns regarding the separatist activities in Xinjiang and Tibet, the Chinese military has expressed interest in learning from their Indian counterparts who have had significant experience in counter-insurgency operations in the Kashmir region and in the northeast. While China and India have viewed each other with suspicion since the 1962 border war, the joint exercise reflects the ongoing efforts by both countries to improve the bilateral relationship.

Those ongoing efforts may have taken a step back with the latest round of talks regarding the Chinese-Indian border.

“Any elected government of India is not permitted by the constitution to part with any part of our land that sends representatives to the Indian parliament,” The Hindu, quoted Mukherjee as saying.

Reuters is reporting that Mukherjee said that New Delhi’s position had been reaffirmed to his new Chinese counterpart, Yang Jiechi, the newspaper reported. The ministers held talks on the sidelines of a meeting in Germany last month.

China and India disagree on three main stretches of the Himalayan frontier in the east, central and western parts, and Beijing does not recognize as Indian territory the entire state of Arunachal Pradesh, located in the eastern limit of their common border.

For a timeline of the border dispute, from 1954 to the present, see this Reuters report.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 18th, 2007 at 8:17 pm and is filed under China, India, Government, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.