NEW DELHI: During his visit to Beijing which concluded last week, the external affairs minister Jaswant Singh, greatly strengthened India’s drive to give its foreign policy an eastern orientation by fostering an understanding with China and removing the cobwebs which had grown around it by the rupture of relations between the two countries since the boundary conflict which had erupted in the early sixties.

By far the most significant political understanding between the two was the decision to delineate the line of actual control in the boundary between the two countries according to a time frame. The two countries agreed to an exchange of maps on the western sector in June. In the eastern sector, the two countries have already exchanged maps. It is expected that the line of control along the 4,056kms of the boundary between Indian-occupied Kashmir and Arunchal Pradesh would have been completed.

Expressing satisfaction at the successful exchange of maps in the middle sector, Singh announced that the two sides would be in a position to conclude finalisation of the boundary demarcation by the end of the year.

Elaborating on the significance of the understanding, Singh said, “The agreement on the confirmation and clarification of the last is very important since it dominates and stymies every other aspect of the relationship.”

Another political accord which would be in the nature of a landmark agreement was that the two agreed to take measures to counter border terrorism. It was decided that to initiate a dialogue, a mechanism would be set up consisting of the joint secretary of East Asia and the Chinese delegation would be headed by his counterpart the director general of the Asian department.

According to Singh “India is one of the few countries apart from the United States and Russia with which China has formalized a dialogue mechanism. The fact that China and India are sitting together about counter terrorism in New Delhi is quite satisfactory.”

Apart from the path breaking political decisions, the two countries announced several steps to increase trade ties between the two countries from the present level of $3.5 billion annually. These steps were announced after a meeting Singh had with the Chinese prime minister Zhu Rongji.

Both agreed that contrasted with the immense potential that existed, the present level of turnover was far too inadequate. Among the steps announced were an exchange of trade representatives from the two countries and facilitating them to open trade offices in the respective countries. For this purpose, it was decided to ease travel restrictions on a reciprocal basis besides improving shipping and banking services.

To reinforce the decisions taken by the two sides, the prime minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee would be visiting Beijing by the end of the year.