China on Wednesday said it is in talks with India to finalise the dates for the visit of Foreign Minister Wang Yi to New Delhi for the next round of Special Representatives (SR) talks on the boundary question.
Beijing:
"Recently, China and India have been in communication over State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi's visit to India for the new round of Special Representatives' meeting on the China-India boundary question”, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said in a written communication to the media here.
"The two sides will continue to maintain communication on this issue," Geng said in response to media queries amid speculation about Wang's visit to India for the 22nd round of border talks with his Indian counterpart and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval.
While media reports said the talks were expected to take place next week, there was no official announcement so far by both sides about the dates.
Indian officials here also said they were not aware of any specific dates for border talks as they are yet to be finalised.
Speculation is also rife that Wang is due to visit Islamabad this week to take part in the China-Pakistan-Afghanistan trilateral meet during which he was also expected to hold talks with top Pakistani leaders.
There is no official announcement yet about Wang's visit to Pakistan.
But if Wang goes to Pakistan, his India trip could take a while to materialise due to the stated policy followed by New Delhi in recent years which discouraged high level political and diplomatic visits to avoid attempts to hyphenate India- Pakistan relations.
The annual SR talks are regarded highly by both sides as it is the highest officials level forum mandated to discuss not only the solution to the boundary dispute but also issues concerning the two countries.
India and China held 21 rounds of SR talks so far to resolve the boundary dispute. The dispute covers 3,488-km-long Line of Actual Control.