Taking his cue from one-time Chinese premier Zhou Enlai, who in the 1950s pioneered the "Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence" with Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, China's President Jiang Zemin yesterday proposed a four-point plan for the improvement of troubled China-India relations.
Mr Jiang outlined his proposals during talks in Beijing with the Indian President, Mr Kocheril Raman Narayanan, who is on a six-day state visit to China. He suggested increased visits at all levels between the two countries, expanded trade and economic co-operation, improved co-operation in international affairs leading to a "just and reasonable new international political and economic order" and the establishment of common ground on disputed issues while reserving differences.
The Chinese offer comes against the background of President Bill Clinton's recent successful visit to India, seen in Beijing as an attempt by the US to align itself with India as a counterweight to China as a rising power.
India has also been seeking to improve relations with Japan and Vietnam, having lost the benefits of its long-standing strategic relationship with Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The tone of Mr Jiang's offer contrasts with the invective unleashed by Beijing against India following New Delhi's nuclear test last year, and its emergence as a nuclear power.
China was infuriated by the contents of a letter from the Indian Prime Minister, Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee, leaked by the White House, explaining that the nuclear experiment came against a background of Indian concerns about Chinese nuclear potential, past aggression against India and military ties with Pakistan.
This was a low point in relations between the world's two most populous countries, and since then no senior Chinese official has visited India, although Indian ministers have visited Beijing, and on one of these visits agreed to China's suggestion of a bilateral dialogue on security.
The two Presidents yesterday also agreed, according to the Xinhua news agency, to seek an "early and proper settlement" of their long-running and occasionally bloody border quarrel over territory in the Himalayas, where the two countries share a 4,500 km frontier.
Mr Jiang reportedly told his guest that China hoped to "seek a fair and reasonable solution to the issue through negotiations". The dispute led to a brief war in 1962.
China holds about 20 per cent of the disputed Himalayan territory of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh. This comprises a small area which India maintains was ceded by Pakistan illegally and the Aksai Chin region further east, which India also claims.
China for its part claims large tracts of the north-eastern Indian states of Sikkim and Arunachal. President Jiang said that handling such issues "does not mean shelving disputes for ever, nor does it mean developing bilateral relations only after all disputes are completely resolved".
President Narayanan's visit coincides with the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and India. The five principles enunciated by Indian and Chinese leaders 50 years ago were: mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, mutual non-aggression, non-interference in each other's internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit, and peaceful coexistence.