Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Monday sent a message to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and expressed his willingness to take the two countries’ strategic partnership “to a higher level”.
Mr. Li, who last year chose India as his first overseas trip after taking office, said the two countries were “important neighbours” and the two largest emerging market countries. “China-India relations had gone beyond the bilateral scope and were of global and strategic significance,” he said in his message, according to the official Xinhua news agency.
He said China had taken the relationship “as a priority of Chinese diplomacy”. His government, he added, was “willing to work with India to continuously lift their strategic cooperative partnership for peace and prosperity to a higher level”.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Qin Gang said China paid “high attention to developing good neighbourly” relations with India and “looked forward to making joint efforts with the Indian government led by Modi and press ahead with the friendly cooperation between both the countries in various fields”.
Regarding the attendance of Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif at the swearing in on Monday, Mr. Qin said China “welcomed” it and hoped that “this kind of momentum can be maintained so that India and Pakistan can… maintain regional peace and stability”.
The Communist Party-run Global Times , a tabloid known for its usually nationalistic views, said in an editorial that “there is no sign that Modi will take a tough attitude toward China”. It said the first test for his government was “making a smooth transition in India’s peripheral foreign policies”.
