Making China-India peace eternal

One need not be a political science expert to understand that despite the wishes of the leader of China and India, Sino-Indian relations are vulnerable to a lot of internal and external factors. Therefore, the leaders need to make every effort to strengthen them.

But as the recent past has shown, every upward swing in bilateral relations has been offset by something that has threatened to divert the relations in a negative direction.

That's why the bilateral defense dialogue held on Friday - the highest-level military dialogue since January 2010 - is an especially welcome step. It shows the willingness of the two countries' leaders to maintain a positive momentum. It is hoped that the defense dialogue leads to the resumption of the joint military exercises as soon as possible, because India and China have held only two such drills so far - in Kunming in 2007 and in Belgaum, India, in late 2008.