China and India should address "major and sensitive issues" dogging their bilateral ties, Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday conveyed to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during their meeting in the Kazakh capital Astana.

Meeting Modi on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in Astana, Xi also congratulated India on becoming a full member of the grouping.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying, briefing newspersons on the meeting, said that Modi agreed that China and India should deal with the sensitive issues between them. 

Hua said that Xi told Modi that both sides "should address major and sensitive issues."

"The Chinese side attaches great importance to this relationship with India, and will work together with India to complement each other's major development strategies and stay in close communication and coordinate with each other on major regional and international affairs and maintain sound and steady growth of the bilateral relationship," Hua said.

"During the meeting, Xi pointed out that the current world situation is undergoing profound changes and China and India as two major developing countries in the world should focus more on cooperation and work alongside with each other to provide assistance to each other's developmental growth."

Modi told Xi that the two countries enjoy traditional friendship and a sound and steady bilateral relationship would be conducive to peace and stability of the whole world, Hua said.

Modi said both nations "should enhance cooperation and coordination in international affairs and deal with sensitive issues between the two countries", according to Hua.

The meeting comes at a time when ties between two countries have been strained over a host of issues, including Beijing repeatedly blocking New Delhi's bid for membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group and for a ban on Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist Masood Azhar. 

China has also been upset with India for hosting the Dalai Lama and allowing the Tibetan spiritual leader to visit Arunachal Pradesh, large parts of which Beijing considers as part of southern Tibet.