China's southwest border with India is also growing more amicable. From busy passes to lonely sentry posts high in the Himalaya, Chinese personnel are warming to the uniformed guards on the other side.
Jin Guangyong, a soldier at a sentry post along China's southwestern border with India, says Indian soldiers often shout "Hello" to greet Chinese soldiers.
Isolated by snow for eight months a year, the two sentry posts, separated by a canyon, are the only signs of human habitation, clinging to the black and bare mountain.
"I can feel their loneliness, since we suffer it ourselves. We respond to their greetings. Even the guard dogs bark at each other," Jin says.
But Major Ai Huaichun remembers skirmishes when troops from the two sides confronted each other on patrol just a decade ago.
"In the 1990s, meetings usually ended in squabbles that solved nothing. The two parties could argue for hours about whether a soldier had trespassed or not," says Ai, who used to serve as interpreter at joint meetings for 11 years.
China and India fought over the border in 1962 and hostility afflicted bilateral relations for decades until the end of the 20th Century.
The year 2000 marked the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and India, which helped warm relations between the troops.
In June 2006, the Nathu La Pass, a century-old trading post that sits 4,545 meters above sea level between China's Tibet and India's Sikkim, was reopened after being closed 40 years ago.
"Border meetings have become more friendly. The two sides tend to reflect on progress in Sino-Indian relations and constructively plan for further exchanges," says Ai.
"Now, if problems like trespassing come to the meeting table, both sides politely agree to further investigate and then settle it through negotiations."
The regular meetings have resulted in the successful repatriation of soldiers who became lost and strayed over the border in 2003 and 2006.
"The meetings have enabled both sides to exchange information promptly and resolve problems conveniently, which has better maintained peace and stability," says Colonel Zhang Weiguo, head of the Chinese delegation at a meeting with Indian border troops in May this year. (More)
Source: Xinhua
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