``The threat chapter is over. The Pokharan chapter is now behind us. My trip here has imparted a new and better understanding and much needed restoration of normalcy. From here onwards we can continue to build. We've lost some time, but that phase is over,'' External Affairs minister Jaswant Singh said, summing up his two-day visit to Beijing today.

Singh's visit, the first by an Indian Minister for Foreign Affairs in eight years, was marked not only by the warmth with which he wasreceived by Chinese premier Zhu Rongji today, but also the frankness of the wide-ranging discussions he had with his hosts. They included Foreign minister Tang Jiaxuan, minister in-charge of international relations in the party Dai Bingguo and former premier Huang Hua.

Zhu, it is said, did not even mention the UN Security Council resolution in his conversation with Singh, while Tang fleetingly brought it up yesterday. The UN resolution, in which China was a lead player, had strongly indicted India and Pakistan in the wake of its nuclear tests, for violating the non-proliferation regime.

Singh's visit truly seems to have been a milestone of sorts, not in terms of concrete agreements and memoranda, but to help clear the stale air that has hung over the relationship over the past year. Since India indirectly named China as its reason for having gone nuclear last May and Beijing responded by accusing Delhi of ``hegemonistic'' designs in the region, bilateral ties were thrown into a tailspin.

It needed anExternal Affairs minister, and that too in Beijing, to deliver the final mea culpa. Prime Minister Vajpayee, Principal Secretary Brajesh Mishra and many others in the Indian leadership have, at least over the last six months, publicly stated that ``China is not a threat to India'' and vice-versa, but these had only a limited effect. It took President K R Narayanan, a former charge d'affaires to Beijing, to say the same thing to a Chinese delegation in February. It was only after that that the first officials met together from both sides.

Under the circumstances, Singh's visit here was only a matter of time. The pre-written script for the trip was suddenly clouded with the crisis in Kargil, but it was used to also convey an assessment of the situation across the LoC. Chinese foreign minister Tang explained to Singh the contours of Pakistani foreign minister Sartaj Aziz's visit here on Friday, where he is believed to have asked Aziz not only to deescalate the situation and use restraint, but also resolve thedialogue peacefully with New Delhi.

The problem, Tang is said to have told Aziz, has been left over by history, adding however that a conflict was neither in the interest of Pakistan, China or the entire South Asian region. Indian sources, admitting that Beijing was adopting a position of ``relative neutrality,'' nevertheless argued that even this position was significant movement forward from the publicly acknowledged ``time-tested, comprehensive, all weather'' relationship with Pakistan.

As it turned out, clearing up the air also meant a common understanding on international issues. Beijing pointedly sought New Delhi's support against a ``hegemonistic, unilateral world.'' In the wake of the bombing of its embassy in Belgrade by NATO forces, in which three people died, China has publicly toughened up its pro-US act. Nevertheless, both Singh and Chinese officials said they were not about to ``recreate the Cold War world,'' and that superpower rivalries were out of the question.

Analysts pointed outthat a Sino-Indian convergence on the idea of a multipolar world did not mean that both countries were about to embark on ``reordering'' their relations with the US. ``China is a very pragmatic country and India has to look to its national interest,'' they said.

Meanwhile, Singh's trip has also helped establish the parameters of the future relationship, such as the proposed security dialogue, jointly celebrating 50 years of diplomatic relations, discussions on clarifying the Line of Actual Control, etc. Singh, however, wouldn't compare the security dialogue with China with India's other ``strategic dialogues'' with the other nuclear weapons powers, only indicating that both sides were now ``closing a gap.''

He also denied suggestions that the visits in quick succession by Aziz and himself after the visit of US president Clinton last year -- where Clinton offered a referee role to China in South Asia -- meant that New Delhi was implicitly accepting a role for Beijing in the region.

``India is havingsecurity and strategic consultations with everyone in its neighbourhood (besides the nuclear five),'' Singh said, adding, ``With China now the security dialogue will include larger regional and international issues. It does not give China an impinging, supervisory role in the region.''

Strategic axis

MOSCOW: Russia has said the strategic cooperation with India and China will rise to a qualitatively new level. Russia's first deputy minister of defence Nikolai Mikhailov was quoted by the media as saying that "Moscow is committed to develop strategic cooperation with New Delhi and Beijing. Mikhailov, who also co-chairs Indo-Russia joint working group on defence cooperation made this statement recently when deputy chairman of the central military council of China, colonel-general Zhang Wannian, visited the command headquarters of Russian Navy's Pacific fleet in Vladivostok.