Indian FM in China: Foreign ministers co-chair 2nd meeting on people-to-people exchanges

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China and India explore ways to boost ties, cultural exchanges and more. With the two having a total population of nearly three billion, foreign ministers from both countries met for a second time in as many years on Monday, discussing how bilateral ties are best improved in people-friendly ways. CGTN's Wu Guoxiu reports.

The second meeting of the China-India High-Level Mechanism focused largely on cultural and people-to-people exchanges between the world's two most populous countries.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar co-chaired the event, witnessing the signing of five new agreements. They ranged from foreign ministry cooperation for 2020, to sports, medicine.

WANG YI CHINESE FOREIGN MINISTER "This meeting will help promote bilateral relations. The current momentum of our cultural exchanges is good. But there is still a lot of room for improvement, as we compare our historical heritage and the size of our population and economies."

The ministers also addressed a high-level media forum between the two countries and attended the opening of a China-India movie week event. The decision to establish the HLM was taken during the first informal summit between Chinse President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in April of last year.

Both sides hope to discuss new measures to work together more under the mechanism to boost bilateral relations.

WANG YI CHINESE FOREIGN MINISTER "We'll use this mechanism to continuously push forward people to people exchanges, to increase understanding, cultivate friendships and build mutual trust, to strengthen the basis for long-term development of China-India relations."

SUBRAHMANYAM JAISHANKAR INDIAN EXTERNAL AFFAIRS MINISTER "Our discussions today are especially significant as we prepare for President Xi Jinping's visit to India for the second informal summit later this year, and for celebrating the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations next year."

WU GUOXIU BEIJING "The two countries announced they'll hold 100 different social and cultural events, encouraging the public, and especially more young people, to attend. Wu Guoxiu, CGTN, BEIJING."