New Delhi, June 1: J.N. Dixit, the new national security adviser, has been appointed India’s “special representative” for talks with China on the boundary dispute.

The announcement was made by foreign minister Natwar Singh at a news conference here this afternoon.

Singh said he would visit China later this month to attend the Asia Co-operation Dialogue, scheduled to begin on June 24. He said the meeting of the policy planning group and the strategic dialogue between the two countries would take place soon.

The foreign minister also proposed a dialogue on nuclear confidence-building measures among India, China and Pakistan to know more about each other’s nuclear doctrine and to prevent misuse or accidental use of nuclear weapons.

India and Pakistan have already agreed on a dialogue on nuclear confidence-building measures and would have their first meeting on June 19 in Delhi. It remains to be seen how China reacts to India’s proposal.

The past few years have seen a maturing of Sino-Indian relations and it was during Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s visit to China last year that the two sides agreed to appoint special representatives to address and resolve the decades-old border dispute.

Beijing has deputed Dai Bing Guo, one its senior most vice-foreign ministers as its special representative for the dialogue on the boundary dispute.

Singh said the national security adviser and other experts in the government would have to take a view on his proposal of a dialogue involving all the three neighbours. He said the proposal could also be put before Pakistan when the two sides meet in Delhi later this month.

However, it is unlikely that China, which became a nuclear power in the mid-1960s, would start a nuclear dialogue with India and Pakistan, who were not recognised as nuclear powers even after conducting tests six years ago.

China is already part of the exclusive club of five recognised nuclear powers — the US, Britain, France and Russia being the others — and as a result of which were made the five permanent members of the UN Security Council with veto powers.

But Singh’s proposal is interesting. If it is adopted, it might help India not only to learn about Pakistan’s nuclear doctrine but also that of China’s.

Threat to the country’s security from China was one of the reasons cited by Delhi while conducting the May 1998 nuclear tests. Moreover, India has often accused China of having played an active role in developing Pakistan’s nuclear and missile programmes.