India's defense Minister A.K. Antony said Saturday that India-China relations had undergone a significant improvement.

"As we both expand and integrate with the global economy, new opportunities offer themselves to refashion our ties," Antony told the sixth Asia Security Summit, also known as the Shangri-La Dialogue.

"On major global issues, we often have converging positions and shared interests," he said at the second plenary session of the conference titled "India and China: Building International Stability."

He added that "We are committed to settling bilateral issues in a fair and transparent manner."

With Pakistan, Antony said, "the composite dialogue has changed the climate of our ties for the better. With regard to bridging our differences, including on Jammu and Kashmir, we know what has not worked in the past."

He pointed out that the challenge was to devise more imaginative approaches, saying "to do that, it is imperative that Pakistan delivers on its commitment not to permit any territory under its control to be utilized to support terrorism in any manner."

He said he could not emphasize enough India's stakes in the emergence of a stable and moderate Pakistan, at peace with itself as much as with its neighbors.

During the speech, he outlined India's security policies contributing to building international stability.

He said that no single forum perhaps assumed responsibility for international security related issues, adding that India was ready to play a key role in the shaping of "a pluralistic security order " to collective security.

"Only a pluralistic security order working through a network of cooperative structures can have the legitimacy as well as the wherewithal to deal with the security challenges of the 21st century," he said.

He noted that India's security interests, regionally, "are met by a peaceful and developing periphery. This is the aim of our current intensifying engagement with countries in South Asia, South East Asia, West Asia and Central Asia."

Antony added that globally, India was contributing actively as a responsible partner to the search for solutions to security dilemmas connected with terrorism, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and other non-traditional security threats.

He also emphasized that "an effective management of India's internal security at a time of rapid modernization is itself a key contribution to international stability."

The three-day Shangri-La Dialogue, organized by the London- based International Institute for Strategic Studies, opened on Friday. It gathered defense ministers and top officials from 26 countries and regions in the Asia-Pacific region and Europe to address major regional security issues and defense cooperation.

Source: Xinhua