A transcript of their chat has recently been made public in Beijing. China's relations with India were deter-iorating and a brief border war was soon to break out. Mao Zedong comes across here as mellow and liberal. BP Koirala, instead of playing India off against China, tries to ease tensions between Beijing and New Delhi by offering Kath-mandu as a venue for talks. The Nepali prime minister is quite pushy, and also brings up the dispute over the world's highest border pillar: Mt Everest. There is agreement to have embassies in each other's capitals. Excerpts of the transcript:

Chairman Mao Zedong: We and India have been at odds. Never mind. It will be over soon. We have common interests, because we are both undeveloped countries. It is a false charge that China invaded India. We do not want an inch of (their) land. We have a vast land of 9.6 million sq km, with a large part uncultivated. It is a crime to take others' land and not run one's own country well. Have we invaded Nepal? We do not want a single inch of Nepalese land. Can we sign a border and erect boundary markers?
Prime Minister B.P. Koirala: Yes, we can. I have discussed it with Premier Zhou Enlai.

Mao: Do you agree?
BP: An official marking of the boundary is needed.
Mao: It is necessary to mark the boundary. Once it is drawn, there can be an unpatrolled zone. The length of the unpatrolled border can be decided through consulation. If you like, we can have a clause in the stipulating an unpatrolled border area, the length of which can be worked out through consultation. It will be 40 km altogether if each side has 20 km, 20 km if each side has ten km, ten km if each side has five kilometers. It is up to your convenience. How about it?

BP: It is worth considering.
Mao: If you are interested, we can sign a friendly treaty of non-aggression. We are a big country and we never suspect you will invade us, but you may suspect that we shall invade you. We would commit a blunder if we broke the treaty after it was signed.
BP: During our talks, Premier Zhou Enlai put forward a draft for a friendly treaty. We shall take it back to the cabinet for decision, there may be some revisions. It may be signed at Kathmandu when Premier Zhou Enlai visits Nepal after his trip to India at the end of April.
Mao: Very good. We have received two of your prime ministers separately and our premier should visit you, making it equal. We thank you very much. It is excellent that we are to set up an embassy in your capital this year. You may set up an embassy here without many people, three or four, maybe seven or eight. It won't be very expensive. It is not difficult to find people out of eight million people.
BP: When we are ready to send them, it will not be too many, because we cannot afford it.

Mao: We heard that you are building a highway directly to our country.
BP: No. We wanted to build a highway two years ago. It could not go on because of lack of funds. Now technicians from the Soviet Union are helping survey, in preparation for a east-west highway.

Mao: You have to go via another foreign country if you come to our country.in one year, ten years, or 20 years sooner or later we shall have a direct road.
BP: I invited Jawaharlal Nehru and Premier Zhou Enlai to hold talks in our capital, Kathmandu, but they could not (come).

Mao: It was because Nehru wanted our premier to go to his capital, Delhi. At first we suggested Rangoon, but Nehru did not agree. Now we have agreed to go to Delhi, so he cannot go to Nepal. Thank you for your kindness. You have every good intentions. When Nehru said it was not convenient for him, we had to make concessions to him. We have had quarrels with India for about a year, but we are still friends. There are often quarrels between friends, between husband and wife, and between brothers. We have had no quarrels with you, Burma, Ceylon and Cambodia. We have serious quarrels with only one country in the world, the United States. It has occupied our Taiwan and has called us "aggressor". We shall call it aggressor, too.

Now there is one country that wants to have #'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#'&#̵'216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216;216&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&'216;;'joint defense'' with you against us. I learned that you did not agree. We are pleased. You said that Sino-India relations should be solved by themselves and you would not interfere. India alleged that we had invaded you and you made a statement declaring there was no invasion. There is a rumour about our troops intruding into your country. Is there any intrusion, after all ?

BP: Because there isn't, we made the statement. On the question of the Nepal-Chinese border, there are still differences. In our view, there are disputes in four places, based on the historical situation in the past 50 years. Now it is time to settle the disputes.

Mao: Good.
BP: In our talks with Premier Zhou we have worked out several principles: first, draw the boundary based on the existing traditionally accepted boundary line, second, take into consideration the practical situation of jurisdiction by either