New Delhi must realize neighbor brings India more opportunities

India's Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar has struck a positive note on China-India relations, saying on Saturday that the relations have a bearing on the two countries' development prospects and the global order, and India will look at relations with China from a long-term perspective.

Although Jaishankar also said that India must be prepared to deal with a neighbor with ever-growing strength, and enhance its own strength, his observations on the importance of China-India relations are objective and accurate, and if New Delhi really develops ties with Beijing and deals with the contradictions in this approach, bilateral relations will have greater space for development.

As two leading emerging economies, there is no reason for China and India not to develop better relations. The problems between the two countries should not hold back the development of friendly relations, but should instead become the impetus for solving them.

During their meeting on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in Kazan, Russia, on Oct 23 last year, China's top leader and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi reached a consensus that China and India are, for each other, development opportunities, not threats; cooperative partners, not competitors, and that the two countries will adhere to a strategic and long-term perspective to handle relations. This high-level consensus has provided a strong driving force for the two countries to bring bilateral ties back to the track of sound and stable development.

For a long time, the China-India boundary dispute has been a major obstacle to improving bilateral relations. However, as long as the two countries keep the overall situation in mind and avoid taking unilateral and drastic actions to aggravate the contradictions, solutions will surely be found. On Dec 18, the special representatives of the two countries on the boundary issue held their 23rd meeting in Beijing, the first in five years, and reached six important points of consensus. This has created a good political environment for bilateral economic and trade cooperation.

The 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and India this year should become an important opportunity for the two countries to advance the further development of bilateral relations. At the strategic level, New Delhi should steer clear of external forces that want to contain China's development and realize that China's development brings it opportunities.