"China and India are partners of development instead of rivals. There is enough space for the two countries to grow and prosper together," Zhang said at a reception in his honour by Unity International Foundation on Thursday evening.

"Maybe, there are people who are not quite happy about the current development of our bilateral relations. However, the growth of friendship and cooperation between our two peoples and two countries is a trend of time," he said without mentioning any one in particular.

Evaluating Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's recent visit to Beijing, Zhang, who took charge of China's mission three months back, described it as ‘another milestone’ for the two countries.

"It has injected new impetus to the development of our bilateral relations and provided a historical opportunity for our two countries to work together for the betterment of our people and the world as a whole," he said.

China has always attached great importance to the development of Sino-Indian relations, he said adding, "we hold that the two countries have more consensus than differences".

"The relationship between China and India has gone well beyond the bilateral context and acquired global and strategic dimension in importance," Zhang said.