by Hu Xiaoming, Pankaj Yadav

NEW DELHI, Oct. 11 (Xinhua) -- The second informal meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will surely continue to guide the development of China-India relations from a strategic and global perspective, an Indian expert has said.

The first informal meeting between Xi and Modi, held in April last year in China's Wuhan, "was quite positive in the format that it injected new impetus to the development of bilateral relations," Zorawar Daulet Singh, a fellow at Delhi-based Centre for Policy Research, told Xinhua in an exclusive interview.

It showed that both leaders hope for bilateral ties to develop steadily, Singh said, adding that he believes the second informal meeting "will carry that forward."

During the informal meeting last year, Xi and Modi had a full and in-depth exchange of views and reached broad consensus on China-India relations and major international issues of mutual concern.

Noting that the two countries established the high-level people-to-people exchanges mechanism last year, Singh said such mechanisms help promote mutual understanding between the two peoples, which will in turn lead to greater people-to-people exchanges.

In regard to economy and trade, Singh said the two countries have huge space for cooperation and great potential for development.

China has long been India's largest trading partner and India is China's largest trading partner in South Asia. Since the beginning of the 21st century, two-way trade has grown from less than 3 billion U.S. dollars to nearly 100 billion dollars.

More than 1,000 Chinese companies have increased their investment in such areas as industrial parks and e-commerce in India, with the total sum now amounting to 8 billion dollars and 200,000 local jobs having been created.

Speaking highly of the "China-India Plus" model of cooperation put forward during the first informal meeting, Singh said the two countries can cooperate and work with other countries, so that all can benefit from joint investments and trainings across sectors.

"We should move on (in) those areas of mutual interests," he said.

Noting that the global landscape today is going through great changes and the rise of protectionism and unilateralism is seriously affecting global stability, Singh said the upcoming informal meeting between Xi and Modi has "great significance in modern era."

India and China, both important emerging economies and major developing countries with a population of more than 1 billion, should strengthen communication and coordination in global and regional affairs, and play an active role in maintaining peace and stability of the region and the world, he added.