Only two days before Wen Jiabao, the Chinese premier, arrives in New Delhi, diplomacy across the Himalayas is facing familiar headwinds.
On Monday, Zhang Yan, Beijing’s ambassador to New Delhi, said relations between the world’s two fastest-growing large economies were “very fragile” and, once damaged, difficult to repair. He also emphasised China’s desire for a free-trade agreement that India does not want.
New Delhi countered by offering to roll out the “red carpet” for Mr Wen on his first visit for five years. It also made excuses for a rumbustious and vocal democracy easily misunderstood by the one-party state on the other side of a shared 4,000km border.
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