India, China identify 10 areas of people-to-people exchange

The mechanism will club together more than 40 existing programmes for cooperation in culture and people-to-people exchanges and also include some new schemes.

India and China on Friday identified 10 areas, ranging from films and television to yoga, for boosting cooperation under a new high level mechanism for cultural and people-to-people exchanges.

India and China on Friday identified 10 areas, ranging from films and television to yoga, for boosting cooperation under a new high level mechanism for cultural and people-topeople exchanges. (Vipin Kumar/HT PHOTO)

External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj and her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi chaired the first meeting of the mechanism that was mooted at the informal summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping at Wuhan in April. The mechanism will club together more than 40 existing programmes for cooperation in culture and people-to-people exchanges and also include some new schemes.

“Today, we identified 10 areas of people-to-people cooperation – cultural exchanges, cooperation in films and television, museum management, sports exchanges, youth exchanges, tourism cooperation, exchanges between states and cities, traditional medicine, yoga, and education,” Swaraj said.

Wang said the number of tourists travelling between India and China was small compared to their combined population of 2.7 billion. “We both agree that as China-India cooperation embraces a strong momentum of full growth, peopleto-people exchanges must also step up and this will be helpful to increase our mutual understanding and friendship,” he said.