Li calls for more political exchanges with India

NEW DELHI - Visiting Premier Li Keqiang said Monday that China is ready to work with India to promote exchanges between the two countries' parliaments and political parties so as to further consolidate bilateral relations.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang meets Hamid Ansari, vice president of India, May 20, 2013. [Photo/Xinhua]

Li made the remarks during separate meetings with Hamid Ansari, vice president of India, Sonia Gandhi, chief of the ruling Congress party, and Sushma Swaraj, opposition leader in the lower house of parliament.

Parliamentary exchanges are an important component of bilateral communication and an important channel to expand interaction between the two peoples, Li told Ansari, who is also chairman of the Rajya Sabha, or the upper house of India's parliament.

Beijing will continue to attach great importance to the friendly exchanges between the two countries' legislatures, and thus further deepen China-India friendship, Li added.

With China and India being each other's important neighbor and the world's two largest developing countries, a closer bilateral relationship benefits not only themselves but also Asia and the world at large, said the Chinese premier.

China, he added, is ready to make concerted efforts with India to strengthen strategic mutual trust, deepen practical cooperation and expand people-to-people exchanges, so that they can accomplish common development in harmonious coexistence and mutual learning.

Ansari, for his part, noted that the whole Indian society is paying high attention to Li's visit, and that the trip has already achieved success with Li's in-depth talks with Indian leaders and the release of a course-charting joint statement.

India, he said, is willing to work with China to carry out their agreements, promote parliamentary exchanges and build a better future for the two countries and peoples.