President Li Xiaolin met with Mr.S. Jaishankar, ambassador of the Republic of India on 19th October 2012.

H.E. Mr.S. Jaishankar thanked President Li Xiaolin for meeting him regardless of her tight schedule. To enhance mutual understanding between China and India, ambassador Jaishankar expressed his willingness to strengthen the cooperation on education and tourism between two sides. President Li indicated that both China and India were neighbouring countries with ancient civilization and large population. It''''''''s essential to develop our bilateral relations in terms of people-to-people communication. The development of exchanges and communications between local governments of both countries would set up effective platforms in this regard. President Li introduced the "BRICS Friendship Cities and Local Governments Cooperation Forum" to H.E. Mr. Jaishankar, hoping that Indian Embassy could play an active role to make the forum to be held successfully in India early next year and facilitate the intertwining of the first sister city between China and India. H.E. Mr.S. Jaishankar expressed that he would follow the progress of the forum actively and provide support to make the forum a smooth and successful one.