The signals emanating from the mini-summit between Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chinese President Hu Jintao, held on the sidelines of the recently concluded BRICS conference in Hainan, China, were largely positive.
The leaders both showed an interest in arresting the downward slide in bilateral relations that had lately touched a low. Ties between the two Asian neighbors have been bedeviled by the infiltration of Chinese soldiers into Arunachal Pradesh, China's intrusion into some areas of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and Beijing's issuance of stapled visas to residents of Jammu and Kashmir entering China.
Piqued by these developments, India had suspended high-level military exchanges and demanded an immediate end to the Chinese practice of issuing stapled visas. During Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao's visit to Delhi last December, India was quick to assert that it found Beijing's position on Jammu and Kashmir "hostile and offensive." But at the time, China showed little willingness to change its position.