China, India seek to enhance people-to-people exchange
Bilateral relations have entered fast lane: ambassador
China and India vowed on Friday to enhance people-to-people and cultural contacts to lend fresh momentum to bilateral relations.
In a congratulatory message on the holding of the first meeting of China-India high-level people-to-people exchanges mechanism in India’s capital New Delhi, Chinese President Xi Jinping said that China and India are both ancient civilizations boasting long history and splendid culture, adding that the two civilizations, with close exchanges and mutual learning from the ancient time, have both made significant contributions to the human development and progress.
Today, Xi said, China-India relations are actively moving forward, with mutual political trust deepening, practical cooperation accelerating, people-to-people and cultural exchanges flourishing, and bilateral coordination in international and regional affairs sustaining.
Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi is visiting India from Friday to Monday, to co-chair the meeting with Indian foreign minister Sushma Swaraj.
While meeting India President Ram Nath Kovind on Friday, Wang said both nations are in the course of developing their economy, improving people’s livelihood and realizing national rejuvenation.
He added that the 2.7 billion combined population of China and India marching toward modernization will have profound and far-reaching influence on the future of mankind.
Wang is the third State Councilor to visit India this year after the informal meeting between leaders of the two countries in Wuhan in April. The meeting is the outcome of the informal meeting.
“People-to-people visits aim to make two peoples view each other in a more positive way, and it’s also very helpful to push forward bilateral relationship,” Zhang Jiadong, professor at the Center for American Studies, Fudan University, told the Global Times on Friday.
Zhang noted that the two sides still have a lot of potential to boost people-to-people and cultural exchanges.
“Our expectation for the Chinese outbound market is very small. We saw just 250,000 [visitors] in 2017. We want this to become 1.4 million by 2019,” said Satyajeet Rajan, director general of India tourism, in September.
Moreover, Indian movies such as Dangal, Bajrangi Bhaijaan, and Toilet: have been very popular among Chinese audience. Dangal grossed 1.3 billion yuan ($189 million) in China alone, more than 60 percent of its global revenue.
Chinese Ambassador to India, Luo Zhaohui, told Indian media The Tribune in October that the bilateral relations have entered the fast lane.
He said one of the outcomes of the informal meeting is that two countries carried out “China-India Plus” cooperation in Afghanistan. The two sides jointly conducted a training program for Afghan diplomats.