New Delhi, Jan 16 (IANS) Indian and Chinese officials Monday began two-day talks here on their decades-old boundary dispute, with Chinese State Councillor Dai Bingguo predicting “a golden period” for Sino-Indian ties.

Dai and India’s National Security Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon, special representatives for the boundary talks, began the delegation-level negotiations aimed at firming up a framework for delineating the border on the map.

This is the 15th round of boundary talks between the special representatives of the two countries since 2003.

The talks were scheduled for November last year but were postponed after India refused to relent to Chinese objections to Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama’s participation in a global Buddhist conclave in Delhi.

Menon and Dai are expected to flesh out the details of a pact on the border mechanism to be signed Tuesday.

The border mechanism will facilitate real-time contact between the foreign office of the two countries in case of intrusions along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

It is aimed at preventing flare-ups or misunderstandings arising out of incursions in each other’s territory that stems from misperceptions of the undemarcated LAC.

Ahead of the talks, Dai, said to be close to Chinese President Hu Jintao, struck an upbeat note on the trajectory of India-China relations. He rejected rivalry with New Delhi.

“While working hard to develop itself, China is fully committed to developing long-term friendship and cooperation with India. It is our genuine hope that India will enjoy prosperity and its people, happiness,” Dai said in an article published in The Hindu Monday.

“There does not exist such a thing as China’s attempt to ‘attack India’ or ’suppress India’s development’. China will remain committed to the path of peaceful development,” he said.

Underlining the need for closer cooperation between India and China, Dai said: “We speak with one voice and enjoy increasingly closer coordination and collaboration in multilateral mechanisms and in tackling global challenges.”

The influential politician rejected China had rivalry with India.

“We need to view each other’s development in a positive light and regard each other as major partners and friends, not rivals. We always need to be each other’s good neighbour, good friend and good partner,” he said.

“What we face is a golden period to grow China-India relations. The world has enough space for China and India to achieve common development, as there are so many areas for us to work together,” he said.

Dai’s comments came against the backdrop of recent discordant notes in bilateral ties.

China recently denied visa to an Indian Air Force (IAF) officer who was to be a member of the Indian military delegation to China on grounds that he was from Arunachal Pradesh, the Indian state claimed by China. This led to India scaling down its delegation from the original 30 members to 15.