President Jiang Zhenghua, Vice-President Feng Zuoku, and Friends,

I am honoured and privileged to be here this evening at the celebration of the 60th Anniversary of the establishment of India-China Friendship Association and the founding of its 2012-2017 Council. The event is of special significance since it is held during the Year of Friendship and Cooperation between India and China.

The civilizational exchanges between India and China span over 2000 years. However, sometimes, some try to understand the relationship within the narrow parameters of the last 60 years or so. We are two largest populations of the world constituting about 37% of the human population. We are two great ancient civilizations. We are two fastest growing economies in the 21st century. We represent the aspirations, dreams and hopes of the highest number of youths of the world. It is, therefore, imperative that we visualize the potential of our future cooperation through a wider prism. The objective could be to provide a peaceful, friendly and cooperative environment for our people to realize their potential fully.

India-China Friendship Association, since the days of Prime Minister Nehru and Premier Zhou Enlai, as the first non-governmental organization engaged in people-to-people contacts between our two nations, has always been striving to build mutual friendship, cooperation and trust. It has undertaken various missions including India-China joint medical mission, India-China exchanges of university students and youths and exchanges of young leaders. I hope, in the coming decades, it will continue to make endeavours to contribute towards further promoting closer people-to-people contacts.

On this occasion, I would like to express my gratitude to the India-China Friendship Association, its leaders and officials who have given me this opportunity to address you today. China-India Friendship Association (CIFA) and Chinese People Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC) have always been cooperative to our Embassy’s endeavours. On behalf of the Ambassador of India, I wish the event all success.

Thank you very much.