Rediff (2003.06.27): Sino-Indian ties no longer hostage to the past?

This article by Mira Sinha Bhattacharjea in Rediff claimed that, "If the principles enshrined in the Joint Declaration signed by the two prime ministers last Tuesday are upheld in political practice and policy, then Mr Vajpayee will have succeeded at long last in moving the bilateral relationship firmly onto the track of cooperation." [link]

She noted how Vajpayee had visited China in his first term as foreign minister in the short-lived JP government of 1977 and Rajiv Gandhi also tried to normalized relations across the border in his visit to Beijing in 1988.

She identified two issues of continuing concern -- the territorial issue and the nature of the Sino-Pakistan equation. Of course, there are also larger geopolitical issues, but these ones were of immediate concern and most troubling for people at a visceral level. [link]