Sino-Indian ties

Since the New Year, interactions between China and India at multilateral and bilateral levels have been eye-catching. Beijing and New Delhi have expressed willingness to step up security cooperation and work for common development.

On Thursday, State Councilor Dai Bingguo delivered a letter from newly elected Party chief Xi Jinping to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Dai was in India to attend the third meeting between the National Security Advisers of the BRICS countries: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

Xi said in his letter that the world has enough space for the common development of China and India, and it needs the two countries to realize common development. China's latest interpretation of Sino-Indian ties, which is full of goodwill, has drawn much media attention in India.

On Monday, when meeting with Indian Defense Secretary Shashi Kant Sharma in Beijing, Xu Qiliang, vice-chairman of China's Central Military Commission, said China attaches great importance to developing military ties with India and hopes to increase mutual strategic trust, enhance friendly communication and deepen pragmatic cooperation. China is committed to promoting the strategic partnership for peace and prosperity with India, Xu said.

All these are positive signals that the two neighbors are now looking to deepen mutual trust and the bilateral relationship, which will contribute to regional peace and development.

As two big countries with a rising clout in global and regional platforms, how Beijing and New Delhi interact with each other always attracts wide attention. Some in the world arena tend to deem the two most populous countries in the world as potential rivals. Their unsettled border issue, skirmishes over trade and lack of mutual understanding keep each other apart from time to time.

Nonetheless, what the two countries have achieved in the past decade indicates maintaining growing bilateral ties caters to the interests of both. The past 10 years has seen the bilateral trade volume rise from about $3 billion to $80 billion. China is now India's biggest trading partner, while India is China's biggest trading partner in South Asia. The two countries are working to increase bilateral trade to $100 billion in 2015.

Obviously, cooperation in trade has become the cornerstone of Sino-Indian ties. Beijing and New Delhi have every reason to continue to build on the current desirable momentum, as it will help deepen mutual trust and lay a solid foundation for the solving of other thorny issues between them.

(China Daily 01/16/2013 page8)