On the morning of November 17, 2005, Chinese President Hu Jintao met in the hotel where he stayed with ROK Prime Minister Lee Hae-chan and both sides held cordial and friendly talks with each other.

Hu pointed out that currently bilateral relations have maintained sound development momentum. Both sides have witnessed close exchanges between their leaders, continuously enhanced mutual political trust and rapid development of economic and trade cooperation with fruitful exchanges in the areas of science and technology, culture, education, health and tourism and sound coordination and collaboration in international affairs.

Hu said to Lee Hae-chan that he held fruitful talks with President Roh Moo-hyun on November 16. During the talks, both sides agreed to continue their joint efforts in a bid to build up mutual political trust, expand economic cooperation, draw reference from each other's cultures, keep closer coordination in international affairs and upgrade bilateral comprehensive cooperative partnership to a new level.

When talking about economic and trade relations, Hu appreciated the ROK government for acknowledging China's market economy status, holding that this is conducive to active development of bilateral economic and trade cooperation. He also indicated that in the process of rapid development of economic and trade relations, both sides should start from the overall perspective of bilateral relations to properly handle and resolve related specific issues through equal and friendly consultations.

Lee Hae-chan noted that bilateral friendly cooperative relations have reached an unprecedented level. President Hu's proposals on furthering bilateral relations are of great significance and will surely push bilateral exchanges and cooperation in various areas to a new height. He added that the ROK government attaches great importance to developing economic and trade cooperative relations of mutual benefits with China and related departments will strengthen communication and coordination with China to properly handle emerging specific issues and push for steady and sound development of bilateral economic and trade cooperation.

On the night of November 16, Hu also met in the hotel where he stayed with the staff of the Chinese Embassy in the ROK and representatives from Chinese-funded institutions, overseas Chinese in the ROK and Chinese students studying there.