Mutual Trust Between China And India After The Cold War

The Sino-India relationship broke the ice after the end of Cold War. The frequenthigh-level recriprocal visits cemented the bilateral relationship, which wiped out, tosome extent, the negative factors in the relationship between the two sides, andushered it in a new stage. However, with the deepening of bilateral exchange, manyhistorical and current problems are still inevitably impairing Sino-India friendship.Both China and India are committed to building a bilateral relationship featuringmutual trust. To the end, both sides have made unrelentless efforts. The agreements onthe boundary problems reached between two sides, and which can contribute to theelimination of misunderstandings and the promotion of mutual trust, are a solid andconcrete step for the mutual trust between China and India. However, as the sayinggoes,“Rome is not built in one day.” The slow progress made in the bilateralboundary issue, Tibet issue, trade imbalance and geopolitical mindset poses the greatthreat to the building of a mutual-trust Sino-India relationship.Apart from the practical factors, the in-depth factor impeding the realization ofmutual trust is that China and India are two countries with different political systems.It is hard for them to identify with each other. India has a wrong perception of China’srapid emergence, considering that China is a greatest threat to India both in the shortterm and the long term. Though both countries made multiple efforts in history, theystill failed to build a complete set of interactive mechanism, thus resulting in thepolitical uncertainty and the high transaction cost between two sides. The mutual-trustrelationship between China and India has shown some new characteristics. First is thevulnerability of the bilateral mutual-trust relationship. This characteristic is reflectedin every aspect of the bilateral exchange. Second is the different mutual trust degree indifferent fields. Third is the uncertainty in the development prospects of bilateralmutual-trust relationship.Despite of many unfavorable factors, the Sino-India mutual-trust relationship still has brilliant prospects. In essence, the development of the mutual-trustrelationship is an internal demand of the two countries. With the passage of time,many historical problems can get a proper solution.