Rapprochement Across The Himalayas

Few relationships are as important for peace and stability in Asia as between India and China. India-China relations have moved a long way since the brief but Bitter War in 1962. New contours in the bilateral relations were visible in 1976, when a major diplomatic initiative, both sides agreed to resume ambassadors in their respective capitals. This marked a positive beginning. The early eighties witnessed a realization among the political leadership of both sides to tackle the border issue, a highly emotive as well as intractable problem. From the beginning of 1999, both nations restored the process of rapprochement in a more substantive and meaningful manner. In this phase, a more nature India outlined a friendly framework for the Sino-Indian relations. At the political plane as a result of Prime Ministerial Summits of the 2002 and 2003, overall bilateral relations registered upward trend. A more confident and assertive India, gradually veered towards realism and was no more guided by idealism. An endeavour has been made in this work to delineate the changing contours of India-China relationship in the Cold War period, in terms of bilateral, regional and international perspectives. It argues that the permutation and combination of bilateral issues, regional context and dynamics of evolving global setting were major inputs in the overall Sino-Indian relationship.