by Xinhua writer Yang Dingdu

BEIJING, May 14 (Xinhua) -- Promoting economic cooperation is key to stabilizing and improving relations between India and China, the world's two biggest developing countries and two emerging economies, C. Raja Mohan, director of Carnegie India, told Xinhua in a recent interview.

Both Chinese and Indian leaders want to keep bilateral ties sound and stable. "The challenge is to put the understandings into specifics," Mohan said, referring to last month's informal meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The two-day tete-a-tete in central China's Wuhan was widely applauded by scholars and experts, who said that the meeting provided a good chance for Beijing and New Delhi to further exchange views over long-term and strategic issues.

Bilateral ties can be improved by managing the "negative elements" and outweighing them with positive ones. "Political differences will remain, they must be balanced with economic relations," Mohan said.

"Increased trade, increased Chinese investment, more Indian companies going to China and vice versa, those are what gives you stability," Mohan said, calling for improved trade relationship, better market access and investment conditions.

Last year, Indian exports to China went up by nearly 40 percent to 16.34 billion U.S. dollars, while overall bilateral trade hit a historic high of 84.4 billion dollars, up 20.3 percent year on year, according to statistics from China's Ministry of Commerce.

China is India's largest trading partner. Both are the world's major economic engines and offer huge opportunities in bilateral trade.

Mohan said he feels that building strong people-to-people links offers a short-cut to better ties.

Both China and India should make travel easier while promoting cooperation in tourism and education. "These are easily done, not difficult things to do," he added.

Mohan also suggested both countries cooperate in infrastructure projects in the region, saying "we can do projects in other countries, through which we can build some trust."

"Differences will not automatically disappear," Mohan said. "We need to cooperate. Increase the positive to reduce the negative."