Invoking former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee?s visit to China in 2003, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to convey to Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday his government?s decision to continue with the Special Representatives? talks on the border dispute.
Top government sources told The Indian Express that the decision to appoint a new Special Representative (SR) from the Indian side has been taken and may be announced ?soon?. Significantly, the Chinese Special Representative on border talks, State Councillor Yang Jiechi, is accompanying Xi on his visit. With 17 rounds of border talks having been held since 2003, the approval of the SR mechanism is seen as a significant step forward.
While there was no official word about Modi and Xi?s 22-minute meeting at Hyatt in Ahmedabad and their conversation over dinner at the Sabarmati riverfront, sources said the effort from both sides was to seize the ?once-in-a-decade? opportunity of a Chinese President?s visit to give renewed thrust to border negotiations. This is only the third presidential visit in the last three decades ? after Hu Jintao in 2006 and Jiang Zemin in 1996.