Delhi and Beijing tread warily

There are regular high-level meetings between Asia’s two rising powers. India and China have just concluded their second round of

“strategic dialogue” and declared 2006 a Sino-Indian friendship year. More important, they have agreed to cooperate, rather than compete, for global energy resources. The incipient Sino-Indian entente has prompted some to argue that it has the potential to alter Asian geopolitics radically.

Longtime observers of India-China relations, however, maintain that some improvement in the rhetoric and atmospherics notwithstanding, ties remain fragile and as vulnerable as ever to a sudden deterioration. The combination of internal issues of stability and external overlapping spheres of influence forestall the chances for a genuine Sino-Indian rapprochement.

Asia Times