China's anti-satellite weapons test has cast a shadow over Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing's four-day official visit to nuclear neighbour India, which begins today.
The prime objective of Mr Li's trip is to hold talks with his Indian counterpart, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, for implementing the 10-point trade plan agreed upon by China and India during President Hu Jintao's landmark visit in November to normalise relations between the two countries. Also on Mr Li's agenda is the inauguration of a hotline between the foreign ministers of the nuclear-armed neighbours.
But analysts in New Delhi say that Mr Li - the senior-most Chinese official to visit India since the January 11 anti-satellite test - will be forced by his hosts to spend more time and energy addressing India's gnawing fears over security than talking about the execution of the 10-point plan or the new hotline.
By all accounts, India's security establishment is bristling with anger over the test, in which China fired a ground-based, medium-range ballistic missile to destroy one of its own ageing weather satellites 865km above Earth, scattering debris that could damage other satellites. The move sparked alarm around the world, with the United States, European Union, and Japan voicing concerns about the safety of their satellites in orbit, dangerous space debris and escalating military rivalry in space.
But India believes that its own assets in space, like satellites, are particularly vulnerable after China's sudden demonstration of its satellite-killing capability because of the legacy of distrust and suspicion between the Asian giants who fought a full-fledged war in 1962 and have yet to demarcate their border.
Analysts say that although bilateral ties have improved steadily since the early 1990s, the hangover persists. They believe that India still suffers from an acute persecution complex instilled by the scale of its defeat in 1962.