Recently, the world’s attention turned to the venue of the 18th BRICS Summit, where China and India, two neighbouring powers, once again found themselves at the intersection of bilateral relations and global responsibilities.
Following the meetings in Kazan and Tianjin, the meeting between the two countries’ leaders in New Delhi came at a critical juncture amid improving ties and a changing world.
President Xi Jinping put forward four observations on promoting the steady and sustained development of China-India relations, covering strategic perception, pathways for cooperation, management of differences and multilateral coordination, which have provided a comprehensive and clear framework for the two largest developing countries to overcome historical constraints and pursue development.
China and India today are no longer what they were decades ago. The two countries have entered, almost in parallel, a crucial stage of development and revitalisation. China is advancing toward high-quality development, while India is pushing ahead with industrial upgrading through its “Make in India” initiative.
Both economies have positioned themselves at the forefront of the global landscape. At such a historic juncture, continuing to regard or define the other as a rival would, in essence, mean voluntarily narrowing one’s own space for development and wasting valuable strategic resources on unnecessary mutual friction.
China and India are important neighbours and both core members of the Global South. Their development is deeply embedded in each other’s geopolitical and economic environment. The stable growth of either country will objectively create a broader regional market and a more secure surrounding environment for the other.
During their latest meeting, the two leaders reached an important consensus that “China and India should be partners,” pointing the way forward for bilateral relations.
Viewing each other as partners rather than rivals, and seeing the other’s development as an opportunity rather than a threat, is a clear-eyed strategic judgment based on the two countries’ decades of development experience, their current needs and their long-term interests. Behind it lies the shared aspiration of the two peoples for peace, stability and a better life.
Turning this understanding into reality requires strong cooperation. The recent improvement in China-India relations has brought crucial changes such as the reopening of channels of exchange that had once been suspended.
The resumption of direct flights means that people from the two countries can once again travel directly between their cities without transiting through a third country, restoring smoother people-to-people exchanges between the two ancient civilisations.
Developments in trade and economic relations have been even more significant. Bilateral trade has repeatedly reached new highs above $150 billion.
China’s machinery and electrical equipment, new-energy components and pharmaceutical intermediates continue to enter the Indian market, providing important support for the upgrading of India’s manufacturing sector.
At the same time, India’s speciality agricultural products and information technology services are finding new opportunities in the Chinese market. These seemingly ordinary details of cooperation are what is strengthening the popular foundation of bilateral relations.
They allow more people to gain tangible benefits from improved ties and turn “win-win cooperation” from an official phrase into something tangible in the daily lives of industries and ordinary people in both countries.
Furthermore, China and India are exploring a more mature way of coexisting – one that prevents partial differences from defining the entirety of their bilateral relationship and ensures that border disputes do not disrupt the overall momentum of cooperation.
Decades of experience have demonstrated that when both sides focus their primary efforts on managing differences and refining communication mechanisms, the peace and tranquillity of the border region gain a fundamental safeguard.
In recent years, a series of institutional arrangements – ranging from the commander-level meetings and consensuses reached by Special Representatives on the boundary question to the establishment of new military hotlines and expert groups – have been put in place. These measures are shifting interactions in the border areas from “crisis response” to normalised “peace management.”
In this process, the greatest need for vigilance lies against interference by external third parties. Driven by their own geopolitical interests, certain forces from outside the region constantly seek to sow discord and incite confrontation between China and India, hoping to reap asymmetric strategic gains.
Such actions serve neither the interests of China and India nor the stability of the region as a whole. As major powers, China and India possess the political wisdom and diplomatic experience to properly resolve historical issues through dialogue and communication; they require no third-party interference or finger-pointing, and certainly will not tolerate attempts to exploit these issues to disrupt the normal atmosphere of bilateral relations.
Adhering to a “dual-track approach” – whereby the handling of the border issue and the development of bilateral relations advance in tandem and reinforce each other – represents the most mature and prudent path for major powers like China and India to manage complex historical differences.
This entails using institutionalised dialogue to stabilise the border situation and advance boundary negotiations, while simultaneously solidifying the foundation of the bilateral relationship through ever-expanding practical cooperation.
The significance of China-India relations transcends the bilateral scope. In today’s world, hegemonism and unilateralism are on the rise, putting unprecedented pressure on the development space of Global South countries.
As the two largest countries in the Global South, the unity and cooperation of China and India are a powerful counterbalance to the unfair international order. Following the New Delhi BRICS summit, China will assume the presidency of BRICS in 2027, providing a favourable collaborative window historically granted to the two countries.
The two sides can fully leverage the BRICS platform to strengthen strategic coordination within multilateral frameworks such as the UN, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, and the G20, and forge a unified stance on issues vital to the interests of developing nations, including global governance reform, climate equity negotiations, global AI governance, and local currency settlement.
By doing so, they can transform the combined weight of China and India into collective influence for the Global South, striving for a fairer development environment for the vast number of developing countries.
The experience of the past few decades has demonstrated that as long as both sides firmly uphold the strategic perception of being “partners rather than rivals,” prioritise development as the greatest common denominator of their relationship, handle differences with political wisdom, and solidify the foundation through pragmatic cooperation, the two nations can forge a brand-new path of peaceful coexistence and shared prosperity for neighbouring emerging powers.
The value of this path extends far beyond the bilateral scope; it sets a model for the world.
Views expressed are that of the author and do not reflect EastMojo’s stance on this or any other issue. The author is director of the Research Department at Tsinghua University’s National Strategy Institute. He regularly writes for Chinese media outlets, including Global Times.
Also Read: China and India can make Greater BRICS a force for the Global South
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