India today said considerable progress has been made on the boundary question with China. Citing the agreements on peace and tranquity, confidence building measures and the guiding principles and political parameters to resolve the vexed issue, the External Affairs Minister Mr. S. M Krishna said that this goes to show the two countries have the ability to increase convergence and deepen mutual understanding on this complex issue through patient negotiation. He said it has to be accepted that there will be outstanding issues between the two countries even as their relationship forges ahead. He said that this is in the very nature of global politics and but it should not result in any discouragement. He was speaking at China Institute of International Studies (CIIS) on India and China in the 21st Century World in Beijing .<br/><br/>Mr. Krishna said because our two countries are different; the divergences between the two are often exaggerated. He said there are vested interests at work too. He said India and China must not just cooperate; they must be seen to be doing so by the rest of the world. Mr. Krishna said that a strong and stable relationship between India and China has consequences for the entire world.<br/><br/>On economic front, Mr. Krishna said that there is a huje potential waiting to be tapped, which would happen only by connecting Chinese users to Indian providers. He said that the two need to work on a wide variety of fronts as progress on one will reinforce in the other. He said that Far from sliding into complacency, the two countries must keep pushing the pace of the relationship with new ideas and more activity .Mr. Krishna said that as rising powers, India and China are often projected to have a competitive relationship but it is up to the two countries to disprove such scenarios, not through platitudes and wishful thinking, but by concrete examples of cooperation.<br/><br/>The External Affairs Minister is on a four day visit to China.