During his meeting with the Indian president, Zhang said China and India have thousands of years of friendly exchanges and a history of mutual learning and benefiting from each other's culture.

Today the two neighbors have become not only the two biggest developing countries, but also the two most dynamic market economies in the world, he pointed out.

"The two countries should join hands to realize goals for peaceful development, cooperative development and inclusive development, in order to benefit the 2.5 billion people of the two countries," he said.

Mukherjee asked Zhang to convey his good wishes to President Xi.

He said India always pays great importance to developing good neighborly relations and friendly with China and is willing to strengthen cooperation and increase exchanges with China in all fields.

Raising the bilateral relations to new heights will help realize common development and prosperity of both countries, he added.