Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh have agreed a plan to settle a long-standing border dispute as the two seek to build a new "bridge of friendship".
Announcing a co-operative and strategic partnership for peace and prosperity, the pair signed several agreements from the border issue, covering more passenger flights, expanded military co-operation and efforts to boost trade between the world's two most populous nations.
"We are going to put in place a bridge of friendship linking our two countries, a bridge that will lead both of us to the future," Mr Wen said after a ceremonial welcome at the red sandstone official residence of President Abdul Kalam.
The row over their 3,500-kilometre border through the Himalayas, from Kashmir in the west to near Myanmar in the east, has dogged relations between the two nations and led to a short war in 1962.
Relations between the nuclear powers have been steadily if slowly improving, but there is still a long way to go and an end to the border issue could still be years off, although both sides appear to be moving towards accepting the status quo along their frontier.
"India and China are partners, they are not rivals," said Indian Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran. "We do not look upon each other as adversaries but as partners."
He showed an official Chinese map he said was given by Mr Wen showing the tiny Himalayan region of Sikkim as part of India, instead of a separate country as it had been shown in the past.
Until now, China had never officially recognised India's 1975 annexation of the territory, once an independent princely kingdom.