MUMBAI, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- A close aide of former Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee said the late Indian leader helped boost the development of ties between India and China.
Sudheendra Kulkarni, a close aide of Vajpayee in the Prime Minister's Office between 1998 and 2004, wrote in an article that Vajpayee's government launched many landmark development initiatives domestically.
"These helped in acceleration of India's economy. However, history will especially remember him for his passionate and persistent efforts to make peace and develop cooperative relations with all of India's neighbors, China and Pakistan in particular."
Vajpayee passed away on Aug. 16 in New Delhi at the age of 93.
Calling Vajpayee "a friend of China," Kulkarni highlighted Vajpayee's sincere efforts to improve India-China relations.
The first attempt to break the ice between the two countries took place in 1979 when Vajpayee, who was then India's foreign minister, met with Deng Xiaoping in Beijing, the article said.
"The creative solution that Vajpayee and Deng discussed to resolve the vexed border dispute was, in a nutshell, this: Do not let normalization of bilateral relations become a hostage to the resolution of the border dispute," Kulkarni wrote.
"Develop bilateral relations in an all-round manner. Simultaneously, try to resolve the boundary dispute through dialogue," he added.
"Much work has indeed been done by both sides since then. One of the highpoints of this mutual effort was Vajpayee's visit to China as prime minister in June 2003," Kulkarni wrote.
"I had accompanied him on this visit, which became a major milestone in the history of India-China relations," he added.
Vajpayee, one of the co-founders and first president of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), served as Indian prime minister thrice - first in 1996 for only 13 days, and then for two consecutive terms between March 1998 to May 2004.
During his active political life, Vajpayee was always seen as a great orator and had friends cutting across party lines.