Relations with India strategically important: Chinese minister

BEIJING - China attaches great importance to the strategic cooperative partnership with India and the two countries were keen on promoting bilateral ties in the areas of politics, economics, trade, and culture, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi has said.

Yang said this during a discussion Sunday with India’s External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna at the 10th China-Russia-India foreign ministers’ meeting in Wuhan in Hubei province, Xinhuanet reported.

China said it was willing to strengthen “bilateral communication, coordination and cooperation” and to develop ties in politics, economics, trade, and culture, the report said.

The two countries were communicating closely on international and regional issues, said Yang, praising the continuing development of bilateral ties over the past 60 years.

The Chinese minister said this was possible because of the frequent high-level exchanges between the two countries.

He said leaders of both countries agreed that “the world is large enough to accommodate the common development of both China and India”.

On his part, Krishna said India and China were “ancient civilizations” that exerted influence on the international affairs of this century.

He welcomed Chinese enterprises to invest in Indian industries and infrastructure.

Meanwhile, statistics released by China’s General Administration of Customs showed that the trade volume between the two countries reached around $45 billion from January to September this year - up 43 percent compared to the same period last year.

The two leaders were also scheduled to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.