Sonia Gandhi’s visit to China has come at a time when there is unease in Beijing and New Delhi over the Sino-Indian bilateral relationship. Beijing is said to be concerned with India’s growing proximity to the United States. The Indian Navy’s recent exercise with its counterparts from the US, Australia, Japan and Singapore in the Bay of Bengal has not gone down well with China. And India has been anxious over recent Chinese incursions along the disputed border in Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh. Ms Gandhi has sent out a signal that India’s warming ties with Washington will not erode New Delhi’s determined efforts at normalising relations with China. This is a message aimed as much at China’s newly elected leadership as it is at the Indian Left parties, which have been at the forefront of the attack on the nuclear deal.

Ms Gandhi’s trip to China has come almost two decades after she accompanied the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi on a landmark visit that marked the start of a new era in Sino-Indian relations. In the 20 years since, bilateral relations have improved significantly. Trade, which stood at a paltry $ 260 million in 1990 touched $ 25 billion last year. Over 80 Indian companies have set up shop in China and some 45 Chinese firms are operating in India. But the full potential of bilateral relations is yet to be tapped. Mutual suspicions persist. Talks over the disputed border have made progress. Recently, the two countries decided to set up a working group to prepare a framework to resolve the dispute.

But progress on the border is indeed insubstantial given the fact that the two sides have been engaged in talks on the issue for over a quarter of a century. For some time now, both countries have been talking about the need for making “concessions and adjustments” in order to reach a settlement of the border dispute. It is time they walk that talk. Ambitions of the two countries joining hands to emerge an Asian powerhouse will remain mere dreams if they fail to settle their differences over their border soon. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is scheduled to visit China early next year. In the months preceding that visit, India must push for substantial progress on the border issue. The positive atmospherics evident during Ms Gandhi’s visit to China indicate the high priority the Chinese leadership accords to relations with India. India should build on this to take the bilateral relationship forward.