Looking back at the development of Sino-Indian relations in 2018, it is clear that the outgoing year has turned out to be significant for the Chinese “dragon” and Indian “elephant” with the four meetings between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping. The relations between the two countries are in one of the best periods in history right now, outweighing their “partial frictions.”

 PM Modi has rightly noted that there had been a “perceptible improvement” in bilateral ties. Needless to say, a strong India-China relationship can change the center of gravity of global politics in the face of the quixotic public persona of U.S. President Donald Trump.

This year, the two leaders' four bilateral meetings - the landmark informal summit in Wuhan in April, the SCO Leaders' Summit in June in Qingdao, 10th BRICS summit in July in Johannesburg and the 13th G20 summit in Buenos Aires - firmly expressed their commitment "not to allow their difference to become disputes" and the two leaders' "strategic guidance" put bilateral ties on an even keel after last year's prolonged Doklam standoff. Undoubtedly, the Wuhan summit charted the course for future development of the ties between the two countries.

Responding to each other's most critical anxieties, a number of feel-good measures emerged from both sides.

In February, India's Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale instructed government representatives not to participate in Tibetan events. This positive gesture was followed by the visit by the Chinese Commerce Minister Zhong Shan attending the 11th India-China Joint Economic Group (JEG) meeting on March 26 in New Delhi. His visit demonstrated a new dynamic in the India-China economic and trade partnership amidst the U.S.' capricious trade practices in the name of "national security" and "fair trade."

From January to July this year, bilateral trade reached nearly 55 billion U.S. dollars, with a year-on-year growth of 15 percent. Encouragingly, China has lowered tariffs on some of the Indian goods exported to China, increased imports of sugar, non-Basmati rice and other agricultural products from India, facilitated the export of Indian medicines to China, and further improved the trade structure. It is worth mentioning that China is currently India's largest trading partner, with total trade output registering 89.71 billion U.S. dollars from 2017 to 2018.

The visits of India's External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defense Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to the meetings of the foreign and defense ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Beijing in April further enhanced political trust between the two countries and steered the Sino-India ties in a new direction.

Furthermore, the 5th Strategic Economic Dialogue, organized jointly by China's Development Research Center (DRC) and India's apex planning body, the National Institution for Transforming India (the NITI Aayog), in Beijing in April enabled the two large and rapidly growing developing countries to strengthen their bilateral cooperation in different sectors of “Make in India Initiative” and “Made in China 2025.”

India sought China's assistance to speed up the revitalization of its aging rail system, including the redevelopment of the Bangalore-Chennai railway corridor and Agra and Jhansi railway stations.

There had been a positive improvement in border management along the India-China border areas. India welcomed China's Defense Minister, General Wei Fenghe, in August. General Wei's visit to India was a significant event since the two countries were locked in the standoff at Doklam 18 months ago.

The 21st border affairs meeting between China and India was concluded on November 24 in Chengdu, the capital city of southwest China's Sichuan Province, with a positive consensus on "moving negotiations forward and preserving regional peace and stability."

Apart from strengthening political, economic and military ties, tourism, art, films, media, culture, sports and academic and youth exchanges are among other considerations that have done much to further mend ties. This year, seven Bollywood movies – “Secret Superstar,” “Bajrangi Bhaijaan,” “Hindi Medium,” ‘‘Toilet Ek Prem Katha,” “Baahubali 2: The Conclusion,”  “Hichki” and “Padman” have bridged Sino-India cultural communications, dispelling many false popular Chinese notions by providing a more empathetic and holistic glimpse of India.

On the other hand, the Consulate General of the People's Republic of China in Kolkata organized so many Chinese artistic performances this year.

It is true that both sides have taken a series of confidence-building measures and made goodwill gestures in the outgoing year. Thus one can hope for the relations to move into the fast lane of development following China's State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi's four-day visit to India from December 21 to 24. During his stay in India, he held extensive talks with his Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj under the newly established framework to enhance people-to-people exchanges between the two neighbors.

Undoubtedly, Wang Yi's visit has helped end the year on a positive note of hope that if two old and close Asian neighbors are united, "one plus one will equal not only two, but also eleven." Looking forward to 2019, it is hoped that our two governments should bridge the Sino-Indian cultural and perceptional gap through “political acumen” and “civilization wisdom” so that the coming generations will not be burdened by unresolved issues.