The first round of talks between the state governments of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam to settle border disputes are all set to be held on Wednesday in Guwahati. This comes after Assam and Meghalaya signed a historic pact to resolve 50-year old inter-state boundary issues in March.

The Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh, Pema Khandu has already arrived in Guwahati for the crucial talks and will meet Assam CM Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma tomorrow.

Following the signing of the agreement with Meghalaya counterpart Conrad Sangma in March this year, CM Sarma had said that talks will be held with Arunachal Pradesh soon to resolve border disputes.

He had said, “The Assam-Meghalaya issue has progressed well. Now, we are trying to resolve the border disputes with Arunachal Pradesh.”

Notably, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh share a 804 kilometers long inter-state border. There have been several incidents of clashes among local residents in the bordering areas over boundary issues.

Earlier, Assam solved its long standing border issues with Meghalaya over six of the 12 disputed areas.

The Chief Ministers of both the states had signed the agreement in presence of Union home minister Amit Shah in the national capital.

The memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between Assam and Meghalaya after a draft resolution was submitted by the CMs of both states to Shah for consideration two months ago on January 31.

The dispute was sparked in 1972 when Meghalaya was carved out of Assam. The border issues rose as a result of different readings of the demarcation of boundaries in the initial agreement for the new state's creation.