India and China fought a bitter war in 1962 and are now rapidly expanding their economic ties. They had adopted the special representatives route in 2003 to resolve the border issue from a political perspective after diplomatic negotiations failed to yield results.

India accuses China of illegally occupying 43,180 sq km of territory in Jammu and Kashmir, including 5,180 sq km Beijing has illegally ceded to Pakistan in 1963. Beijing accuses New Delhi of occupying some 90,000 sq km of Chinese territory, most of it in Arunachal Pradesh.

In making repeated claims over Arunachal, Beijing is seen here to be aiming at a maximalist position with an eye on the monastery town of Tawang that it claims on the ground that the sixth Dalai Lama was born in Tawang. The Tibetans, including their spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, have, however, never asked the monastery town to be returned to them.

New Delhi contends that the Chinese claim on Tawang goes against the grain of political parameters and guiding principles for the settlement of the boundary dispute finalised during Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's visit to India in 2005. The two countries had then agreed that a final settlement would not entail an exhange of territory in populated areas. Most of Tawang's 20,000 people are Indian citizens.