The outcome of Saturday’s meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao on the fringes of the ASEAN Summit here is anybody’s guess but Indian diplomats are quite hopeful that it would at least draw a curtain on the recent war of words between the two countries over contentious issues that had threatened to derail the normalisation process.

Flying into this Thai beach resort for the India-ASEAN Summit and the East Asia Summit, Manmohan Singh confirmed that he would hold bilateral talks with the Chinese Premier on a wide range of issues.

It would be the first meeting between the two leaders since relations between their two countries were hit by recent trading of charges over Arunachal Pradesh and other issues, arising mainly from their unresolved border dispute.

On the eve of the much-anticipated meeting, senior Indian officials acknowledged that it was in the larger interest of both India and China to settle their differences in a peaceful manner instead of adopting a confrontationist approach.

In this connection, they observed that sanity appeared to have now been restored in the bilateral relationship with both sides making positive noises in the run-up to the meeting between the two premiers. Earlier this week, the two countries had also signed a historic agreement on climate change in New Delhi ahead of the Copenhagen Summit in December.

Trade and commercial ties between the two Asian giants have been on an upswing in recent years but it is the lingering border dispute that has bedevilled ties between them. The special representatives (SRs) of the two countries on the lingering border issue have met more than a dozen times so far but not made much headway. Both countries admit that it would still take them years to resolve the border dispute to their mutual satisfaction. Pending its resolution, they have decided to concentrate on areas in which they could cooperate, such as trade.

What, however, has been a matter of concern for India is the repeated incursions by Chinese troops into the Indian territory though on record New Delhi has said that these border violations were due to differences in perception of the two sides on the line of actual control (LAC).

China recently queered the pitch when it expressed dissatisfaction over the Indian PM’s October 3 visit to Arunachal Pradesh for campaigning in the Assembly polls against the backdrop of Beijing constantly laying claim over a large part of the north-eastern state. New Delhi hit back with a vengeance, describing Arunachal Pradesh as an integral and inalienable part of India. China has also objected to Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama’s proposed visit to Arunachal Pradesh in November. New Delhi’s contention is that since India is a free nation, the Dalai Lama could travel anywhere in the country.

Amid tension over Arunachal Pradesh, Chinese president Hu Jintao announced during a meeting with Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani earlier this month that Beijing would engage in projects with Islamabad in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (POK). New Delhi immediately objected to Beijing’s announcement and called upon the Chinese leadership to cease such activities in PoK.