sh
claims; action by the joint boundary commission, established by
Chile and Argentina in 2001, for mapping and demarcating the
disputed boundary in the Andean Southern Ice Field (Campo de Hielo
Sur) remains pending
China
in 2005, China and India began drafting principles to resolve
all aspects of their extensive boundary and territorial disputes
together with a security and foreign policy dialogue to consolidate
discussions related to the boundary, regional nuclear proliferation,
and other matters; recent talks and confidence-building measures
have begun to defuse tensions over Kashmir, site of the world's
largest and most militarized territorial dispute with portions under
the de facto administration of China (Aksai Chin), India (Jammu and
Kashmir), and Pakistan (Azad Kashmir and Northern Areas); India does
not recognize Pakistan's ceding historic Kashmir lands to China in
1964; about 90,000 ethnic Tibetan exiles reside primarily in India
as well as Nepal and Bhutan; China asserts sovereignty over the
Spratly Islands together with Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan,
Vietnam, and possibly Brunei; the 2002 "Declaration on the Conduct
of Parties in the South China Sea" has eased tensions in the
Spratlys but is not the legally binding "code of conduct" sought by
some parties; Vietnam and China continue to expand construction of
facilities in the Spratlys and in March 2005, the national oil
companies of China, the Philippines, and Vietnam signed a joint
accord on marine seismic activities in the Spratly Islands; China
occupies some of the Paracel Islands also claimed by Vietnam and
Taiwan; China and Taiwan have become more vocal in rejecting both
Japan's claims to the uninhabited islands of Senkaku-shoto (Diaoyu
Tai) and Japan's unilaterally declared equidistance line in the East
China Sea, the site of intensive hydrocarbon prospecting; certain
islands in the Yalu and Tumen rivers are in an uncontested dispute
with North Korea and a section of boundary around Mount Paektu is
considered indefinite; China seeks to stem illegal migration of tens
of thousands of North Koreans; China and Russia prepare to demarcate
the boundary agreed to in October 2004 between the long-disputed
islands at the Amur and Ussuri; demarcation of the China-Vietnam
boundary proceeds slowly and although the maritime boundary
delimitation and fisheries agreements were ratified in J
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