Indian President Pranab Mukherjee and visiting Chinese Vice President Li Yuanchao hailed here Friday the development of relations between the two countries and called for further strengthening of bilateral ties.
Li said that as two important neighbors with thousands of years of friendly exchanges, China and India also have their respective dreams closely connected and well matched since the ancient times.
Li also said that as two biggest developing countries and fast growing emerging economies, China and India have become two important forces in the process of multi-polarization of the world.
A stronger strategic partnership for development between the two countries would not only benefit the 2.5 billion people of the two countries, but also contribute to the early realization of the "Asian Century", he said.
For his part, Mukherjee said the exchange of visits by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping resulted in important consensuses in building closer partnership for development between the two countries.
He said that the two countries are witnessing a comprehensive development of cooperation in political, economic and trade and cultural relations, which will also exert an important impact on the whole world and benefit all developing countries.
The president said India is willing to strengthen cooperation with China in manufacturing, trade and investment as well as coordination in multilateral frameworks.
Also on Friday, Li held talks with his Indian counterpart Hamid Ansari.
During the talks, Li said China and India should implement the consensuses on bilateral cooperation reached by the top leaders of the two countries to push the bilateral ties to a new stage.
He said the two countries should also maintain the momentum of exchanges of high-level visits to provide a guiding role for furthering the bilateral relations.
The two sides should strengthen strategic economic dialogue, financial dialogue, and speed up cooperation projects in railway and industrial parks, said Li.
For his part, Ansari said India and China have seen their relations strengthened with the visits to each other's country by Prime Minister Modi and President Xi.
He said the cooperation between India and China will contribute to the realization of the dream of "Asian Century".
