New Delhi: The World's Mightiest Selfie -- that's what the Forbes Magazine has called the photo in which Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and Prime Minister Narendra Modi appears together. The Prime Minister clicked and posted the photo on social media on Friday, with a caption "It's selfie time! Thanks Premier Li".
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is among the 507,277 people who "Liked" the photo within six hours. On Twitter, it had been retweeted 3.2K times so far.
The Forbes article, titled "India's Modi & China's Li In Selfie, World's Mightiest Selfie?" said the photo "is being billed the selfie of the world's two mightiest".
The selfie was clicked at Beijing's Temple of Heaven, where the Prime Minister watched a performance of Tai Chi by Chinese students.
The visit to the temple complex, where China's emperors paid homage to gods for good harvest, brought up the end of a hectic day in Beijing for the PM, who spent the afternoon there with Premier Li.
PM Modi, who is in China this week to boost economic ties and discuss a persistent border dispute, is known for his ease with social media. He has a a large follower base on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
The photo has also delighted the users of Weibo, which PM Modi joined just ahead of his China visit.
Some Chinese users posted messages like "cute premier!", others wondered why China's own leaders had no presence in social media. "Wouldn't it be great if Premier Li had his own Weibo?" one user wrote. "Then we could respond to him directly".
Such spontaneous online presence are rare for leaders in China, where discussion of politicians' personal lives is taboo and details such as their exact date of birth are considered a state secret.