Premier hotline to aid border talks with India

A premier-level hotline between Beijing and New Delhi will be established to help further boost bilateral relations following the 13th China-India Boundary Talks, according to India's national newspaper The Hindu.

As predicted by analysts, no concrete progress on resolving the nations' dispute over 125,000 sq km of territory was made during the two-day talks in New Delhi between China's special representative State Councilor Dai Bingguo and M.K. Narayanan, India's national security advisor to the prime minister.

But the Foreign Ministry announced after the conclusion of the talks on Saturday that both sides vowed to continue seeking a "fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable" solution to the issue and would jointly maintain peace at the border until that time.

"The next few years will be a period of opportunity for great development of Sino-Indian relations and the settlement of the border issue," Dai told Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during the talks, according to a ministry press release.

During the meeting with Dai on Saturday, Singh said China and India enjoyed close cooperation on major international affairs, such as climate change.

Both are expected to defend the interests of developing nations during climate change talks in Bonn, Germany, this month, while India's envoy on climate change has already visited Beijing and its environment minister Jairam Ramesh will arrive on Friday.