A Chinese monk performs kungfu at Shaolin Temple in Henan province to celebrate the Indian Year in China on June 20, 2010. [Photo / Xinhua]

Editor's note: From BRICS to the United Nations, China and India are getting closer on the world stage. The two ancient civilizations on each side of the Himalayas are now striving to get to know each other better.

BEIJING - Being neighbors for thousands of years, China and India are now helping to shape the world.

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However, this important bilateral relationship does not follow a balanced pattern of development. While political ties sometimes suffer from suspicion, economic cooperation is blooming. And while the governments vow to boost friendly relations, the two peoples are still trying to get to know each other.

Now the two ancient civilizations are emerging on the global stage and bringing the world greater prosperity, but at the same time there is a gap in mutual understanding.

China's economy became the world's second-largest last year, while India's economic growth is expected to further accelerate this year.

The two economies, both Asian giants with a combined population of more than 2.3 billion, meet each other next month around the table of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) summit in Sanya, a coastal city in southern China.

Interaction and cooperation on global issues between the two neighbors is becoming increasingly common. India supported China at the Copenhagen climate change summit last May, and similar cooperation took place in Cancun toward the end of last year.

Economics and trade is without question the area in which the two countries most closely interact.

Bilateral trade between China and India has expanded substantially from $200 million annually in the early 1990s to $61 billion last year. Air links also improved as the tourism industry developed.

"In the business sector, China and India are at the same time partners and competitors, but by no means rivals," said E.B. Rajesh Kumar, deputy director and chief representative of the Confederation of Indian Industry's China office.