Beijing, April 22
India today said the lingering boundary dispute with China could not be resolved "overnight" and that the ongoing bilateral negotiations to break the deadlock were not locked in any stalemate.
"I wouldn’t call it a stalemate. We have agreed to the guiding principles and we are discussing a framework which will then translate into something specific and it is natural. It is not something that you can do overnight. Both sides are talking,” foreign secretary Shivshankar Menon said.
“They are dealing with the issue," Menon said while disagreeing with a suggestion that there was a stalemate in talks on the boundary row.
Menon said India and China have expressed satisfaction over the steady development of bilateral ties.
"Basically, both sides are happy. We went over the details on how we could push (the bilateral relations) forward," Menon told mediapersons after his talks with Chinese assistant minister of foreign affairs He Yafei over working lunch and separately with vice-minister of foreign affairs Wang Yi.
Menon, who was here to attend the G-5 meeting of India, China, Mexico, South Africa and Brazil ahead of the G-8 summit of rich nations in Japan in July, said he discussed with them "what we can do and what we have been doing on bilateral relationship.
— PTI
