External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi held extensive talks under a newly set up framework and agreed on “ten pillars” of cooperation to enhance cultural and people-to-people exchanges. Since the resolution of the Doklam face-off, the two countries have taken a series of measures to enhance overall ties.

In her media statement, Swaraj said the armies of the two countries are working to strengthen communication and striving to implement confidence building measures that will help in maintaining peace and tranquility in border areas, which she said, is an important prerequisite for development of ties.

Referring to trade ties, Swaraj said there was a need to find a solution to India’s expanding trade deficit with China and hoped that China will provide support for market access to Indian goods and services.

Swaraj said the special relationship between the two countries is not only important for the region but also for the world. “At a time of global uncertainty, the relationship between the two countries are a factor of stability,” she said.

In their talks under the ‘High Level Mechanism on Cultural and People-to-People Exchanges’, the two foreign ministers deliberated for around two hours on ways to boost people-to people contact and cultural exchanges between the two neighbours.

The setting up of the new mechanism was decided upon during the Wuhan summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping.

“Our leaders had realised that unless we have better people-to-people cooperation, we cannot have close cooperation between the two countries,” said Swaraj.

Continuing the Wuhan spirit EAM @SushmaSwaraj welcomes Chinese State Councilor & Foreign Minister Wang Yi ahead of 1st meeting of #IndiaChina High Level Mechanism on Cultural & People-to-People Exchanges. The new mechanism aims to build synergies in people-to-people ties. pic.twitter.com/FNVetttswM — Raveesh Kumar (@MEAIndia) December 21, 2018

“I am very happy over outcome of our talks… I am confident that the new mechanism will help both the countries in building greater synergies in bilateral ties,” she said in her media statement in the presence of Wang.

Wang, who arrived here early Friday morning, said he had a “very successful” meeting with Swaraj.

“India-China relations have reached a new historical stage,” he said at the inaugural session of 3rd India-China High Level Media Forum.

Swaraj said she and Wang held a series of bilateral meetings in the last few years and talks on people-to-people contacts and cultural exchanges were for not more than 10 minutes in each of the meetings.

“But today, the meeting was very unique and very different. And the reason for it was that we focused on two subjects during the two-hour deliberations — people-to-people relations and cultural exchanges,” she said.