DHAKA: In its first official engagement with India after the change of guard in Delhi, Beijing’s statecraft again came to the fore as visiting foreign minister Wang Yi used nothing short of a panegyric to PM Narendra Modi to reach out to the new government.

Wang is in India as a special envoy of president Xi Jinping.

In his first meeting with his Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj, which lasted for three hours, Wang showered encomiums on the NDA government led by Modi, even saying it had injected a ‘new vitality into an ancient civilization’.

Modi, Wang said, was an old friend of China, reports The Times of India.

Outlining ancient links between the two countries, Modi had earlier regaled Chinese premier Li Keqiang with a reference to the travels of Hiuen Tsang in their telephonic conversation, saying the Chinese scholar had even visited his village Vadnagar during his stay in India in the 7th century.

Li was the first foreign leader to call Modi after he assumed office.

BDST: 1923 HRS, JUNE 09, 2014