BEIJING - Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi sent birthday greetings to Premier Li Keqiang through his account on Sina Weibo, China's main micro-blogging platform, on Wednesday morning, China Daily reported.

"Premier Li Keqiang, Happy birthday to you and wish you a long life. I recall our meeting in May very enthusiastically," wrote Mr Modi in his Weibo post.

Mr Modi visited China in May, where he was warmly received by Mr Li in Beijing. The two leaders witnessed the signing of cooperation treaties and attended a taichi-yoga event in the Temple of Heaven among other bilateral exchanges activities.

Mr Modi's Weibo birthday greeting received 21,290 likes, 1,839 comments and 7,068 reposts hours after it was posted at 6.34am Beijing time.

Some Internet users were surprised to find that Mr Li's birthday coincided with the birthday of the Communist Party of China, while others wondered how Mr Li will respond to Mr Modi's greetings given that Mr Li does not have a Weibo account yet.

The two leaders have previously also displayed their warm friendship on social media. The May visit saw Mr Li smiling widely in a selfie with Mr Modi. The photo was posted by Mr Modi on his Twitter account where he wrote: "It's selfie time! Thanks Premier Li."

The Weibo birthday message is not the first time that Mr Modi has used social media to post greetings to other leaders.

On June 19, he extended a birthday greeting to Mr Rahul Gandhi, the vice-president of India's opposition Congress party on Twitter.

On Sept 21, the India Prime Minister again took to Twitter to congratulate his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe on his birthday.