Chinese, Indian leaders agree to strengthen peace, stability in border areas: spokesman

Chinese and Indian leaders have agreed to strengthen communication and cooperation to jointly maintain peace and tranquility in the border areas, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian at a regular press conference in Beijing on Thursday.

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the 16th BRICS Summit, which ran from Tuesday to Thursday in Russian city of Kazan.

"President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi agreed during the meeting that this meeting was constructive and was of great significance. China and India should view and handle China-India relations from a strategic and long-term perspective, not let specific differences affect the overall situation of bilateral relations, and make positive contributions to regional and world peace and prosperity and promoting multipolarity of the world," said Lin Jian, the spokesman, at a press conference in Beijing.

"The two sides have agreed to strengthen communication and cooperation, enhance strategic mutual trust, and have agreed that the two countries' foreign ministers and officials at all levels will conduct dialogues to push the two countries' relations back on the track of stable development as soon as possible, give full play to the role of the meeting mechanism of the special representatives on the border issue between the two countries, jointly maintain peace and tranquility in the border areas, seek fair and reasonable solutions, strengthen communication and cooperation on multilateral occasions, and safeguard the common interests of developing countries," he said.

Chinese, Indian leaders agree to strengthen peace, stability in border areas: spokesman

Chinese, Indian leaders agree to strengthen peace, stability in border areas: spokesman

The Zhuhai Port on the mega Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge in south China which marked its sixth anniversary on Wednesday saw surge in both foreign trade and vehicle trips through it in the first three quarters of this year, according to the latest customs data.

In the first nine months, the value of imports and exports through the Zhuhai Port, which lies at the end of the mega bridge on the side of the Chinese mainland, reached 164.97 billion yuan (nearly 23.2 billion U.S. dollars), with 3.968 million vehicle trips made, representing a year-on-year growth of 10.4 percent and 89.9 percent, respectively.

In the past six years since the mega bridge opened to traffic six years ago, total import and export value of goods moving through the Zhuhai port of the bridge has reached 942.7 billion yuan (more than 132.5 billion U.S. dollars), according to Zhuhai's Gongbei customs.

The port has recorded over 12.7 million inbound and outbound vehicle trips over the past six years.

The 55-kilometer-long bridge links China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), the Macao SAR and the city of Zhuhai in south China's Guangdong Province. It is the world's longest bridge-and-tunnel sea crossing.

Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge sees surge in foreign trade, vehicle crossings in January-September