by Xinhua writer Shi Xiaomeng

BEIJING, April 26 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping is going to sit down in an informal meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the central Chinese city of Wuhan over the next two days.

The tete-a-tete between the two leaders is going to set a stage for Beijing and New Delhi to further exchange views over long-term and strategic issues and to initiate fresh momentum for future bilateral cooperation.

China is the largest trading partner of India. Both are huge developing countries and the world's major emerging economies which offer huge opportunities for each other's trade market.

In 2017, the bilateral trade volume between China and India rose by 20.3 percent and hit a record high of 84.44 billion U.S. dollars, according to statistics of China's Ministry of Commerce.

This has demonstrated that the bilateral trade ties have huge potentials for further development. And it is necessary for China and India to build closer partnership based on the principles of peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation to create a better environment for trade and economic activities.

In recent years, the cultural and people-to-people exchanges between China and India have been enhanced as well. The India-originated Yoga and Indian films have gained large popularity across China. Last year, visits that have been made between peoples of China and India surpassed 1 million, with 42 flights coming back and forth between the two countries every week.

But still, for the two big countries with a total population of over 2.6 billion, there is huge potential to be tapped in this area.

On the world stage, the two countries have more than enough reasons to work more closely.

Across the globe, economic nationalism and trade protectionism is on the rise, while the combat against non-traditional security threats such as climate change, trans-national crimes and terrorism have become increasingly demanding. No nation can face these challenges alone.

On global trade issues, both Xi and Modi have warned on different occasions of the dire threats of rising trade barriers to the world economy. China and India should firmly stick to the spirit of free trade so as to help maintain the current global free trading system with the World Trade Organization at the center.

Such multilateral frameworks as BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization are also important platforms where the two countries can help improve the global governance system.

India is welcomed to play a more constructive role in these two mechanisms, and together with other members of these groupings, China and India can help make more and better contributions to Asia and beyond.