Article 1 of the Constitution of India states that 'India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States', which is being used for the first time smartly as a political-cultural strategy by the highest authority of India.
After the 17th Chinese Communist Party Congress National Meeting in 2007, China started focusing on South Asia, specifically India. Both have been favourably disposed towards multilateralism, with India joining the Shanghai Cooperation Organization as an observer and China joining the SAARC summit in April 2008, also as an observer. Besides, people-to-people diplomacy expanded with mutual tourist visits.