China and India signed border deal

India and China have signed an agreement in Delhi aimed at resolving a long-running dispute over their Himalayan border. news from BBC

I was reading this piece of news, looking at the promising smiles from both top leaders of the most populous countries in the world. I remembered what I was taught from school when "Socialist politics" was complusory course from primary school to university - teacher told me that - China realized its priority in the earlier stage of economic reboost that to focus on stabalise external and internal environment, so that to most all the countries that we have bother issues, China signed agreement and both nations in the case agreed on "put aside despute and create peaceful borders for both parties' benefits." Now the new deal with India somehow reminds me of this, and the question is -

Is China playing a more active role in her external issue now?
what does that imply for the 5 years to come?

I also heard of mass demonstration on the street in the major big big cities in China to protest on the recent Japanese textbook tension. Somehow they are signs, special ones, I think. Will keep watching.