Xi welcomes closer contact with Modi

President Xi Jinping welcomed Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to meet him in China next year and said he hopes to maintain close contact to enhance mutual political trust, manage differences properly and expand pragmatic cooperation.

Xi made the remark when meeting Modi on the sidelines of the 11th BRICS Summit in Brasilia on Wednesday.

China and India are speeding up implementation of the consensus the two leaders reached in their October meeting in Chennai, India, Xi said.

India, a guest of honor at the second China International Import Expo recently held in Shanghai, saw a large increase in its transaction volume compared with last year, Xi said, adding that China welcomes more imports of high quality goods from India.

The two countries should expand two-way trade and investment and enhance cooperation in areas including medicine, information technology and infrastructure construction, Xi said. They should also work together to uphold multilateralism and the multilateral trading system centered around the World Trade Organization, Xi said.

They should also work together to protect legitimate development interests of developing countries and work for sustained and stable cooperation among BRICS countries, Xi added.

The two countries have agreed to designate the year 2020 as the China-India Year of Cultural and People-to-People Exchanges as they celebrate the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties next year.

Xi said they should cooperate to make the events successful and promote friendship between their people, and that he hopes bilateral ties will have greater development next year.

Modi said his meetings with Xi in Wuhan, Hubei province, last year and Chennai this year have deepened their trust and friendship, and he congratulated China on the success of the second import expo.

India hopes to keep expanding bilateral trade and investment as well as energy cooperation with China, Modi said.