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New Delhi: Chinese President Hu Jintao, who concluded his four-day India visit yesterday, has put new energy and vitality into the growing strategic and economic ties between the two Asian giants.
Not only that, he has also sent an important message to the world that the two countries are "partners and not rivals" in an emerging world order.
Some sceptics may contend that the visit was high on atmospherics and low on substance as there was no significant advance on contentious issues like the decades-old border row and the UN Security Council reforms. But then those were unrealistic expectations.
Going by the sheer scope of the joint declaration that records the resolve of the two countries to double bilateral trade to $40 billion by 2010, to improve mutual political trust for an early settlement of the border issue and Beijing's positive stance towards New Delhi's civil nuclear energy aspirations, it was clear that there was substance as well as symbolism to Hu's visit - the first by a Chinese president in a decade.
"We must understand that these are not problem-solving visits. These top-level visits are part of an orchestrated procession which is intended to convey that the relations between the two countries are in order," said Salman Haider, a former foreign secretary and keen China-watcher.
"Moreover, symbolism is as important as substance in these visits. Symbolism can sometimes become substance," Haider, a former Indian ambassador to China, said, stressing that it was a "very good visit" and showed that the two countries are keen to "revise, amend and improve their relations".
"It was an important visit with a significant practical outcome," said Alka Acharya, a China expert.
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