President Xi Jinping is visiting India later this year. That would be the right time to cement a new dawn provided the Indo-China border issue is settled and India’s strategic interests are accommodated. Prospects of industrialisation in both countries are gigantic, as is the scope of Chinese investments in infrastructure in India.

The Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited India on June 8-9 as the Special Envoy of President Xi jinping. He met Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj and called on the President also. He brought President Jinping’s message for PM Modi that conveyed “under your leadership, India will achieve greater development and progress. Let us work together for benefit of our two people.” Mr Modi responded, “We are looking forward to working with the Chinese leadership to expand our partnership”, while also accepting Premier Li Keqiang’s invite for early visit to Beijing.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson said that “all perennial” Sino-Indian issues were discussed in a frank manner including the need to resolve the border dispute. Talks were productive, useful and substantial and both sides agreed there was untapped potential for growth of economic ties. In May 2014, Chinese Ambassador Wei Wei had spelt out China’s hopes for economic cooperation with India, more specifically: one, increased Chinese investments in manufacturing sector with Chinese resources and experience; two, Chinese investors developing industrial parks in India; three, partnership in developing infrastructure especially efficient transportation between inland cities and ports, improving freight transportation, easing energy shortage in India, accelerating production and improving competitiveness of Indian products; four, combining China’s “Open to the West” with India’s “Look East Policy” to achieve better connectivity with a Sino-Indian railway apart from the Bangladesh, China, India and Myanmar (BCIM) economic corridor, since China has commenced constructing the Trans-Asian high-speed railway connecting southwestern China to East Asian countries.

The India-China Strategic and Cooperative Partnership for Peace and Prosperity envisions: one, exploring prospects of a bilateral Regional Trade Arrangement (RTA), two, review negotiations on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and expedite framework agreement for establishing industrial zones to provide platforms of cluster type development for enterprises of both countries; three, review progress of the India-China Study Group on the BCIM Economic Corridor and further discussions on concepts and alignment of the economic corridor; four, Special Representatives exploring framework of settlement of the India- China boundary question to continue efforts in that direction; five, recognition of peace and tranquillity on the India-China border as an important guarantor for the development and continued growth of bilateral relations – BDCA strengthening maintenance of stability on the border; six, defence exchanges and military exercises in building greater trust and confidence to continue as agreed to mutually; seven, appreciation of signing MoU on strengthening cooperation on trans-border rivers, plus agreement to exchange flood-season hydrological data and emergency management, etc; eight, facilitating greater people-to-people contacts and exchanges, supported by sister-city relationships that have been concluded initially on a pilot basis; nine, in addition to marking 2014 as a Year of Friendly Exchanges, India and China to discuss with Myanmar commemoration of 60th anniversary of Panchsheel; and ten, coordination and cooperation in multilateral forums including Russia-India-China, BRICS, and G-20 to jointly tackle global issues such as climate change, international terrorism, food and energy security, and to establish a fair and equitable international political and economic system.

The BDCA has been operationalised and China is participating in the fourth India-China joint exercise India during November 2014. Both countries have exchanged a number of delegations in recent years. A 60-member Indian services sector delegation participated in the 3rd China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) in May 2014. Services sector is one of the key areas that India is pressing China to open up its markets, especially IT products, to address the trade deficit stretching to $35 billion in China’s favour.

China is sponsoring visit by a group of Indian journalists to China in June. President Xi Jinping is visiting India later this year. That would be the right time to cement a new dawn provided the Indo-China border issue is settled and India’s strategic interests are accommodated. Prospects of industrialisation in both countries are gigantic, as is the scope of Chinese investments in infrastructure in India. Time is ripe to resolve all outstanding issues and give a fillip to the relationship that would benefit both countries and the region.