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Abstract
The stunning rise of China and India is one of the most commendable developments in contemporary world politics. The increasing power aspirations of China and its more assertive posture in Asia makes the management of its relations with China, one of the major challenges for India’s foreign policy. Moreover, there are some issues, most notably the border issue and Pakistan factor, that complicate the relationship between the two Asian giants. At the same time, both the nations are experiencing an unparalleled overlapping of interests in the drastically shifting economic, political and strategic environment. Under these circumstances, the UPA Government has endeavoured to bring about a new paradigm in the relations between India and China, whereby the two countries can cooperate to promote these convergent interests in the international arena even while being firm on protecting India’s national interests on areas where there is a divergence of interests. This chapter will trace the evolution of relations between both countries from 2004 to 2014 with a view to find out to what extent this dual approach (cooperating with China on areas of convergent interests while being firm on protecting India’s interest on areas of divergent interests) of the UPA Government has been successful.