The Indian side at the talks is being led by the foreign ministry's joint secretary in charge of disarmament affairs, Rakesh Sood, and the Chinese side by director general of its foreign ministry Asian department, Zhang Jiuhuan, an Indian embassy official said.

China has made no comment on the talks.

The embassy official said the two sides Monday had an "extensive and wide-ranging dialogue on a variety of issues including global and regional issues."

He said "the atmosphere at the talks was frank and cordial" and that both sides "found that the talks were useful for a better understanding of issues and the process would continue."

The current round of talks will conclude on Tuesday, the official said. The official refused to go into the details of the issues covered so far but diplomatic sources indicated that the nuclear issue had featured.

Bilateral relations took a nasty downturn after India conducted a series of underground nuclear tests in May, 1998.

Beijing was furious after India justified the tests by pointing to a perceived threat from China's nuclear arsenal.

Analysts say China has been taking the lead among the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council -- which also includes Britain, France, Russia and the United States -- in pressing India for a roll back of its nuclear programme.

Indian daily The Hindu said in an editorial Monday, "there is disappointment in Delhi over reports of a Chinese anxiety to ensure that the US continues its uncompromising stand on the non-proliferation issue and presses this country for a reversal of policy and direction."

US President Bill Clinton is to visit India later this month, with the nuclear issue high on the agenda.

China and India agreed to hold their current talks when Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh visited Beijing last June in a bid to repair relations strained by India's nuclear tests.

Indian foreign ministry spokesman R.S. Jassal said in New Delhi last week that the talks would be "broad-based" and that "international security issues" including nuclear proliferation would be discussed.

Jassal declined to comment on whether Indian charges that China supplied M-11 missiles to rival Pakistan would figure in discussions.

However, he made it clear that long-running Sino-Indian border disputes would not be discussed.

An embassy official Monday said there were no Indian military officials present at the talks which were held at the Chinese foreign ministry.

India says China still holds 40,000 square kilometres (16,000 square miles) of its territory in Kashmir, while Beijing lays claim to part of the far-eastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh.

The disputes drew the two countries into a brief but bloody war in 1962.

Chinese President Jiang Zemin visited India in 1996, but the last major Indian visit to China was by then prime minister P.V. Narasimha Rao in September 1993.

Indian President K.R. Narayanan plans to visit China in May to mark 50 years of diplomatic relations with Beijing.

Copyright 1999 AFP. All rights reserved. The material on this page is provided by AFP and may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Community
Email This Article
Comment On This Article

Related Links
Space

Memory Foam Mattress Review

SPACE MEDIA NETWORK PROMOTIONS Solar Energy Solutions Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison ... Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News