Visiting Premier Li Keqiang Monday said that China is ready to work with India to promote exchanges between the two countries' parliaments and political parties so as to further consolidate bilateral relations.

Li made the remarks during separate meetings with Hamid Ansari, vice president of India, Sonia Gandhi, chief of the ruling Congress party, and Sushma Swaraj, opposition leader in the lower house of parliament.

Parliamentary exchanges are an important component of bilateral communication and an important channel to expand interaction between the two peoples, Li told Ansari, who is also chairman of the Rajya Sabha, or the upper house of India's parliament.

Beijing will continue to attach great importance to the friendly exchanges between the two countries' legislatures, and thus further deepen China-India friendship, Li added.

With China and India being each other's important neighbor and the world's two largest developing countries, a closer bilateral relationship benefits not only themselves but also Asia and the world at large, said the Chinese premier.

China, he added, is ready to make concerted efforts with India to strengthen strategic mutual trust, deepen practical cooperation and expand people-to-people exchanges, so that they can accomplish common development in harmonious coexistence and mutual learning.

Ansari, for his part, noted that the whole Indian society is paying high attention to Li's visit, and that the trip has already achieved success with Li's in-depth talks with Indian leaders and the release of a course-charting joint statement.

India, he said, is willing to work with China to carry out their agreements, promote parliamentary exchanges and build a better future for the two countries and peoples.

When meeting with Gandhi, Li said China is willing to strengthen friendly exchanges and cooperation with the Congress party so as to inject new impetus into the development of the overall bilateral relationship.

Relations between the two nations are advancing on the fast track for comprehensive development, and their friendly cooperation has brought concrete benefits to the two peoples and bolstered regional and global peace and prosperity, Li noted.

He expressed the belief that the consensuses he reached with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the cooperation agreements the two sides signed will firm up the development of the bilateral strategic cooperative partnership and signal their solidarity and commitment to common development.

Li noted that when the Indian government established diplomatic relations with China in 1950s and opened a new chapter in bilateral ties, it was led by the Congress party.

The Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, jointly advocated by the two countries, have become an important norm for conducting exchanges and cooperation among nations, he added.

China, Li said, appreciates the Congress party's consistent friendly stance toward China, and is willing to strengthen exchanges and cooperation with the party.

Hailing the importance of Li's ongoing visit to the bilateral ties, Gandhi said she appreciates Li's choice of India as the first leg of his maiden foreign tour as Chinese premier.

The common development and prosperity of the two nations, both ancient civilizations, will help build a more balanced world, she added.

The Congress party, she said, is ready to continue its efforts for strengthening the friendship between the two nations, and earnestly hopes to deepen exchanges between the two peoples, especially the young generations, so as to continuously consolidate the social foundation of the bilateral amity.

In his meeting with Swaraj, a lawmaker from the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Li spoke highly of the contribution to the development of bilateral ties made by the BJP and other parties in the lower house, or the Lok Sabha.

The Chinese side, he said, is ready to further deepen exchanges and cooperation with the various political parties in India so as to rally more consensuses and strength for boosting bilateral friendly relations.

Swaraj said that Indian parties and the Indian people are all happy to see an increasingly robust India-China relationship, and that his party looks forward to expanding exchanges and cooperation with the Chinese side.

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