On the evening of March 15, 2013, China's new Premier Li Keqiang held a telephone conversation with his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh.

Singh, over phone, congratulated Li on his endorsement as Chinese Premier, and said bilateral ties over the past few years have seen a comprehensive development with continuous progress in cooperation and exchanges in various fields. He also said the world has enough room for both India and China to realize their common goals for development. India is willing to work with the new Chinese leadership to explore the potential for mutually beneficial cooperation and make even greater achievement in bilateral ties so that the two countries could set an example for state-to-state relations in the 21st century, Singh said.

Li thanked Singh for his congratulation, and pointed out that China and India are the two largest Asian powers and developing countries, which are also two ancient civilizations and emerging market economies. He said the two countries, by enhancing their cooperation, can expand their space for development, and increase common interests so as to facilitate a sustainable economic and social development and help the world order and system advance in a just and reasonable direction. This will promote better livelihood of more than 2 billion people in the two countries, which bears a great significance for the whole world, Li noted. China will, as always, attach great importance to its relations with India, and would like to work with the country to promote their strategic cooperative partnership to a new stage.