In the long river of history, China and India had maintained friendly exchanges. Xuan Zhuang, a 9th century Buddhist monk who traveled widely in India, wrote a vivid description of ancient India. His work is still being quoted by scholars in China, India and other countries. Some Indian Buddhist monk-scholars also lived in China to spread Buddhist scriptures.

In the 20th century, India's great poet and writer Rabindranath Tagore and Dr. Dwarkanath Kotnis, who died in China while assisting Chinese people in their resistance against Japanese aggression, became representatives of India in the eyes of the Chinese people. Moreover, Chinese people like Indian movies, music and dances, while Indians like Chinese food.

China and India experienced a "golden period" in their relations in the 1950s. But the two countries saw their relations plunge to the bottom of the valley in the early 1960s.

In 1988, former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi visited Beijing and talked with Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping. During the visit, the two sides agreed to re-build friendly relations. In 1991, former Chinese Premier Li Peng visited India, which was the first for a Chinese premier to visit India in 31 years. The two countries from then on have moved on in normalizing and improving relations.

Over the past 20 years, China and India have seen their relations moving continuously in a healthy direction.

The two countries have established a political mechanism on consultation of boundary issues, and have held several rounds of boundary talks. The two governments have agreed that before they solve the boundary disputes, both sides should work for the maintenance of peace and calmness in the border areas. Both sides agreed to solve the boundary disputes in peaceful and friendly ways. The armed forces of the two countries have also opened channels of communications and carried out activities at the border areas to increase mutual trust.

Once an Indian army officer, who teaches Chinese in the barracks in Kashmir region, told the reporter that Indian army encourages its officers and men posted at the Chinese border to learn Chinese language. He also said that the border region is peaceful, contrary to some media hikes and allegations by certain personalities in India.

China and India share many similarities. Both countries have inherited an ancient civilization, have a large population and are emerging economies among developing countries. All these decide that the two countries also share common or similar interests and concerns.

Some Indian friends have pointed out that the population of the two countries make up one third of the global population. Hence, if the two countries carry out close cooperation, they will have form a huge common market. Close coordination and cooperation between the two countries in world financial institutions and world trade talks will not only protect the interests of the two countries, but also help push forward the democratization of the world economic order.

China and India have tasted the fruits of economic and trade cooperation in the past few years, with bilateral trade volume hopefully to attain 60 billion U.S. dollars this year. Chinese companies have also played an important role in infrastructure projects in India, besides power, telecom and steel. The economies of the two countries can well supplement each other in many fields.