On whatever occasion and in whatever form, should a prime minister of India formally visit the disputed border region and celebrate the founding of a state unilaterally declared by India, it will undoubtedly step on China's toes and influence bilateral relations.

Just a few weeks after the Indian Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj advocated an "out-of-box solution" for Sino-Indian border disputes, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to so-called "Arunachal Pradesh," established largely in territory belonging to China's Tibet, has triggered strong dissatisfaction and opposition from China.

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin called in the Indian Ambassador to China soon afterward, saying that Modi's visit "infringes on China's territorial sovereignty and interests, magnifies the dispute on the border issue, and violates the consensus on appropriately handling the border issue."

There might be plenty of reasons for Modi to attend the celebration in the disputed zone, including boosting his Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) political influence and winning more support from this area, especially since the Congress party has long dominated India's northeast.

However, he has more reasons not to go, among which the major concern is that a visit could add fuel to the long-standing territorial disputes between China and India, making it difficult to achieve a resolution and irritating bilateral ties.

India's previous coalition governments, in which several parties cooperated, had weak decision-making ability, leaving them unable to push forward with innovative proposals on the border issue.

As the new Indian government settles in, now is the best time to bring the border disputes to an end, because a solution requires not only strong will, but also strong political implementation capacity.

There is no denying that, no matter which approach is taken to solve the disputes, both countries should apply the principle of mutual understanding and accommodation.

Solutions will require both sides to respect reality and recognize history. Since the boundary disagreements come from colonial days, and the Chinese government has never recognized any treaty or similar document signed illegally and unilaterally by India, it is impossible to settle this issue just based on the present situation.

China and India signed the Agreement on the Political Parameters and Guiding Principles for the Settlement of the Boundary Question in 2005, hoping to find a mutually acceptable solution to the border disputes. But conflicts and divergences have emerged in recent years while implementing the agreement. Hence, identifying the lines of control on each side will be a key step to facilitating the long-stalled process of bringing the disputes to a peaceful resolution. In that case, border standoffs between India and China, such as the one in September last year which started before Chinese President Xi Jinping's trip to India, should be avoided, helping create a friendly atmosphere to further deepen bilateral ties.

As with every other relationship around the world, cooperation and confrontation coexist all the time in Sino-India relations.

This relationship between two rapidly emerging powers is all about how to get on well with one another despite all the controversies and conflicts.

Modi's government, which is focusing on development and improving people's livelihood, realizes it must maintain a good relationship with China, from which India could derive the markets, technologies and financial support to substantially boost the country's economy.

In an atmosphere of cooperation, with strong leaders on both sides, the two countries should seize the strategic opportunity to solve their border disputes.

The article was compiled by Global Times reporter Li Aixin based on an interview with Hu Shisheng, director of Institute of South & Southeast Asian and Oceania Studies, China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations. [email protected]