China and India together constitute about one-third of the world's population. But although the neighboring nations have much in common, their diplomatic struggles have been well documented over the years.

It came to a point where both sides agreed to wipe the slate clean, and begin a process of rebuilding trust.

As for people-to-people contact and cultural exchanges, for some reason, these aspects of bilateral relations between the two countries have for years been given the same status that entertainment news gets on international news channels – not really important and among the first to be dropped in case of important news. 

But things changed at an informal bilateral summit in Wuhan between Chinese President Xi Jinping and India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier this year. They established a high-level mechanism to specifically aim at people-to-people exchanges and boost cultural exchanges. 

From New Delhi, I watched news reports from that meeting and I have to admit, I thought that the two leaders signed up to the mechanism because they could not agree on contentious issues. 

A few months later, I started to notice the frequency of cultural exchanges. A bunch of Indian journalists traveled to China and then Bollywood star Aamir Khan was seen at almost every film festival with his films getting awards. His "Dangal" and "Secret Superstar" and other Hindi films have been performing well in China, which has become a rather lucrative market for the Indian film industry.

This is not to ignore the success of Xiaomi and its Indian managing director, Manu Sharma, who is as much spearheading the country's forward movement as he is the brand ambassador of it.

It was not all about entertainment and culture. The Chinese and Indian militaries have also started to cooperate more and constant communication means fewer border standoffs. 

Suddenly there was way much more talk about China than I had heard in a while. And in a while in my case means, in over eight years of being with CGTN, formerly known as CCTV News.

Cut to the first-ever meeting of the High-Level Mechanism on People-to-people Exchanges. When one of China's top leaders visits India and meets one of India's top ministers on cultural exchanges, it would be safe to assume it's time to pay attention.

Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi's meeting with India's Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj was all about improving communication – not just between governments but on the ground between people, where it matters the most. 

After the meeting, Swaraj said, "The fact that we spent our entire two hours on people-to-people exchanges shows that China's and India's leaders have a vision for a long term. Now you can understand the importance we want to give to the relationship between our people because we know that better people-to-people contact is important for our bilateral relationship." 

Wang Yi added that ten areas of cooperation have been put in place – film and television co-productions, cultural exchanges, media, sports, youth affairs, traditional medicine, tourism, yoga, sister cities and academics. The areas have a central theme – how to help young people from China and India understand each other as they decide the future of the Sino-Indian relationship. 

The talks between Wang Yi and Sushma Swaraj were followed by the China-India Media summit. Media is central to how both countries view each other and collaboration means there could be future synergies. 

With border disputes monopolizing their bilateral talks in recent years, China and India feel it's now time to move on and believe that increased communication and cooperation can put those troubling days behind.

What if the elephant and dragon decide to dance together? The world could change if that were to happen. A start has been made.