KAZAN, Russia -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday urged China and India to maintain a sound strategic perception of each other, and work together to find the right and bright path for big, neighboring countries to live in harmony and develop side by side.

In his meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the 16th BRICS Summit, Xi said that China-India relations are essentially a question of how the two large developing countries and neighbors, each with a 1.4-billion-strong population, treat each other.

Development is now the biggest shared goal of China and India, he said, adding that the two sides should continue to uphold their important understandings, including that China and India are each other's development opportunity rather than threat, and cooperation partner rather than competitor, he added.