Indian diplomacy has finally attained a degree of maturity. New Delhi's move to bridge the great Himalayan divide between itself and China deserves praise.

India's Bharatiya Janata Party, which heads a difficult coalition government, sent its able foreign minister, Jaswant Singh, to Beijing to try to patch things up with China. His success there, coming just as New Delhi was being severely criticized for the recent communal carnage in the northwestern state of Gujarat, is seen as an unqualified victory.

Three important decisions were made during Singh's stay in China. The two nations agreed to strengthen economic cooperation, hold a comprehensive dialogue on terrorism and speed up the demarcation of the "line of actual control" between their respective territories.