New Delhi, Feb. 15: Wang Jiarui, minister of the international department of the Communist Party of China central committee, called on BJP president Amit Shah at the party headquarters this afternoon.

Although the BJP has since the nineties been in regular touch with the CPC, today's interaction is the first high-level contact between the two parties since Nitin Gadkari visited China as BJP president in 2011.

Wang, who had on Friday called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, invited Shah to visit China. In response, the BJP chief was quoted as saying he would "think about it".

BJP sources said the visiting leader is likely to call on the Congress and the Left parties and had indicated that the CPC was "keen to have good relations with all parties" and hold "structured" discussions with their representatives.

A BJP handout said Wang was the first official visitor from Beijing during the "Visit India" year being celebrated by China.

Describing the call as a "courtesy meeting", sources said there was no mention of the border dispute or the issue of Chinese incursions into Indian territory.

Wang stressed the need for more people-to-people exchanges.

BJP general secretary (organisation) Ramlal, general secretaries Ram Madhav - a frequent visitor to China since his days in the RSS - and Bhupendra Yadav, and Vijay Chauthaiwale, who heads the party's foreign cell, were also present at the meeting.

A BJP parliamentary delegation led by former Uttarakhand chief minister Bhagat Singh Koshiyari had some time back visited China on a study tour and met senior functionaries of the Communist Party of China.