Beijing, August 15th—Sun Haiyan, Vice-minister of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee, met here today with Pradeep Kumar Rawat, Indian Ambassador to China and attended the reception upon invitation held by the Indian Embassy in China to celebrate India's Independence Day.  

Sun congratulated India on its Independence Day, and said that the current China-India relations maintain a momentum of improvement and development, which is in line with the fundamental interests of the 2.8 billion people of the two countries. China is willing to work with India to jointly implement the important consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries, enhance political mutual trust, expand exchanges and cooperation, and promote the healthy and stable development of China-India relations. The CPC is willing to strengthen exchanges and dialogue with Indian political parties to play an active role in the improvement and development of China-India relations. 

Pradeep Kumar Rawat said, India and China are important neighboring countries, populous nations and major economies in the world. It is in the common interests of both countries to maintain stable and sound development of bilateral relations. It is hoped that the two sides will continue to deepen mutually beneficial cooperation, enhance people-to-people and cultural exchanges, and strengthen communication and coordination within multilateral mechanisms. India attaches importance to inter-party exchanges and is willing to enhance mutual understanding.