China’s new defence budget for 2025-26 stands at $249 billion. After Russia and Mongolia, China shares its third longest land border with India, which is 3,380 kilometres in length. China has sent out important signals, the most significant one being to the United States. India can align its security and economic goals with China’s aim of “opposing hegemonism and hegemonic power politics,” says Ravi Agrawal, an expert on international relations at the Indian Institute of National Security Studies (INSS) India’s border infrastructure pales against that of China, he says. India’s stated policy of putting “neighbourhood first” may act as a guiding principle, says AgrawAL. The author is an expert in international relations and international studies at the University of California, San Diego. He is also the author of a book, ‘The Art of Diplomacy: How India and China Can Work Together,’ which is published by Penguin Random House.