Indian PM pays informal visit to China

By Fuat Kabakci

BEIJING (AA) - Bilateral ties between India and China were praised in a meeting between Chinese president Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his informal visit to China, according to the country's official Xinhua news agency.

"China-India relations are important for global stability and peace," Xi said to the Xinhua news agency.

"A sound China-India relationship is an important, positive factor for safeguarding world stability, and means a lot to the development and progress of all human beings," he added.

The Chinese president's remarks came during an informal meeting with Modi on Friday and Saturday in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, the agency said.

"The talks with President Xi Jinping focused on diverse areas of India-China cooperation. We discussed ways to give impetus to our economic ties as well as people-to-people relations. Other areas we spoke about include agriculture, technology, energy and tourism," Modi said on his official Twitter account about the unofficial visit.

The unofficial visit is the first among the two countries.

The two largest Asian countries share a border line of 3,500 kilometers (roughly 2,175 miles). Relations between China and India were strained because of a border issue that took place in June last year. The standoff began when India opposed the construction of a road by China at the border.

China then accused India of border violation.

The tensions fell when India withdrew its troops from the region in August and ended with an agreement at the BRICS leaders summit -- Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa -- in September.