A new buzzword in Sino-Indian diplomacy - culture

In the curious nature of Sino-Indian diplomacy, culture has come to play a new role. It now aspires to move beyond cinema coproductions that found few viewers earlier.

A meeting on cultural and people-to-people exchanges was held at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing on Aug 12, co-chaired by State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi and India's Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar. A raft of agreements on the promotion of intangible cultural heritage, cooperation on traditional Chinese and Indian medicine, sports people and youth interactions, and museum management was signed.

"Internationally, there are some people who are trumpeting the clash of civilizations and they are trying to politicize cultural differences," Wang said in a speech after the meeting, which he added was more reason why the two countries should collaborate on culture.