After ignoring India and its security concerns for years, Beijing's new political leaders decided to make India a foreign-policy priority and new Premier Li Keqiang selected India for his first foreign visit.
Days after the Chinese incursion into Indian territory, though, the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India traveled to another Chinese rival, Japan, and even extended his planned visit by a day. As Singh landed in Tokyo, the Chinese media attacked Japan for vitiating Indian minds against China. All this, in a matter of weeks!
The 20-day standoff between Chinese and Indian soldiers in the western sector of their disputed boundary in Ladakh has exacerbated distrust between the two nations. Li's May visit to India was supposed to assuage Indian anxieties, but Beijing has failed to explain why the Chinese soldiers took the provocative action they did. India did not receive a satisfactory explanation during Li's visit, only a reassurance that the two sides would continue to talk about the border problem.
Li did offer India a "handshake across the Himalayas," underlining the need for the world's two most populous nations to become a new engine for the global economy. There was no breakthrough on key issues bedeviling Sino-Indian ties, however. Given the serious nature of bilateral problems, the three pacts signed during Li's visit were rather lame, aimed at boosting the export of buffalo meat and fishery products from India, and other trade in health products.
Border disputes threaten the Sino-Indian bilateral relationship, but Singh and Li could only ask their special representatives to examine the existing mechanisms and devise more measures to maintain peace along the border, hoping to reinvigorate boundary negotiations that are at a virtual standstill despite 15 rounds of talks.
The stakes are high: Bilateral trade is nearing the $70 billion mark, with the two states aiming for $100 billion by 2015. Indian companies want better access to the Chinese market, however, and New Delhi remains concerned about the ballooning trade deficit in China's favor.
India also has concerns about the effects on lower riparian states of activities in the upper reaches of shared rivers and wants greater Chinese transparency on Beijing's plans to develop the water resources of the Brahmaputra River. Li's visit did not result in a full river treaty, as many in India had hoped, but Beijing did agree to share data on river flows.
The longer-term implications of the border crisis remain unclear, but a new robustness in India's dealings with China was evident during Li's visit. India was vocal in demanding reciprocity and made it clear that peace on the border remains the foundation of the relationship - and that other aspects of relations will suffer if incidents like the Chinese incursion into Despang Valley continue.
Beijing wanted the leaders' joint statement to endorse its position on several disputed islands in the South China Sea, but New Delhi insisted on only mentioning the Asia-Pacific. India also refused to reaffirm its support for the "One China" policy and Tibet's status. Meanwhile, spurred by the Ladakh incursion, New Delhi lost no time in ramping up infrastructure and military deployment along the border.
Most significant, there is new seriousness in Indian foreign policy toward the larger Asian region, and it was on full display during Singh's visit to Japan in late May. For far too long India has been hesitant in engaging Japan for fear of upsetting China. New Delhi is slowly shedding this ambivalence, and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan has been one of the strongest votaries of a tighter Delhi-Tokyo embrace.
During his visit Singh announced that Japan is a "natural and indispensable partner" for cooperation in the Indo-Pacific and emphasized India and Japan's "shared commitment to the ideals of democracy, peace and freedom," underlining strong synergies between the two states "which need an open, rule-based international trading system to prosper."
Singh and Abe underscored their commitment to freedom of navigation and unimpeded commerce, as well as agreeing to promote cooperation on maritime issues.
New Delhi and Tokyo not only agreed to institutionalize and increase the frequency of joint naval exercises, but also agreed that Japan would offer its advanced seaplane US-2 to India. A joint working group has been set up to decide terms of cooperation. This is the first instance of Japanese readiness to offer a dual-use technology to New Delhi, setting a new benchmark in the rapidly evolving bilateral ties.
The new importance the two countries attach to their bilateral ties was evident in the statements from the two prime ministers.
"It is not only our spiritual and cultural affinities that bring us together," Singh said, "but also our shared commitment to democracy and international peace. The success of our partnership is vital for the prosperity of our people and indispensable for a future of peace and stability in Asia and the Pacific region."
"India from the west, Japan from the east, the confluence of the two most deep-rooted democracies is already one important part of international common good for the 21st century," Abe said. "I am of a belief that it is important that Japan and India should ensure that Asia remains in peace and prosperity."
As the Asian balance of power changes, new major-power configurations are likely to emerge. China, India and Japan are the three most formidable regional players, and how they manage their bilateral relations will have great bearing on the configuration of the Asian power balance. China's aggressive behavior is bringing India and Japan much closer that could have been envisioned only a few years back. Though Beijing is likely to view this as an attempt at containment, Delhi and Tokyo will argue that it's merely a response to China's provocations.
Whatever happens, global politics will be shaped, to a considerable degree, by the push and pull of Asian geopolitics.