Prime Minister Manmohan Singh recently conveyed to Chinese President Hu Jintao, at the G-8 summit, that their two countries have to adhere to the mutually agreed 'Guiding Principles' of  2005 to resolve their long standing border dispute. The Prime Minister was compelled to highlight this to the Chinese President because the new Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi had told  External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee in Hamburg recently that Beijing would like to deviate from the 'Guiding Principles' which laid down the framework for a settlement of the border dispute. The agreement signed between the two governments in New Delhi in 2005 was to have laid the foundation for a resolution of the border dispute, according to the Chinese leader himself.
The new Chinese position will be seen by India as a violation of Article VII of the 'Guiding Principles' which clearly state that  "In reaching a boundary settlement, the two sides shall safeguard due interests of their settled populations in the border areas." The rationale underlying the altered Chinese position is  that if settled populations in Arunachal Pradesh strengthened India's claims then China would choose to disregard this aspect to stake its claim on the disputed territory. In a sense this suggests that the India-China diplomatic dialogue which has dragged on for more than four decades over the border dispute appears to be back to square one. The fact that  the Chinese Ambassador to India reiterated Beijing's claim on Arunachal Pradesh last November prior to President Hu Jintao's visit to New Delhi also confirms this.
Clearly China appears to be hardening its position on Arunachal Pradesh, even at the risk of reversing whatever progress the two countries have made with the formalisation of the landmark agreement in 2005. What however both sides need to remember at this stage of their ties is that the differences on the boundary question should not be allowed to affect the overall development of the two countries’ bilateral relations.  While China has solved its territorial disputes with all her other neighbours, India is the only exception. New Delhi and Beijing must therefore work within the framework of their 2005 Agreement and hammer out a solution to the border dispute without disturbing settled populations.