On the morning of April 23, Chinese President Hu Jintao met with Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir in Jakarta. Both sides reached common consensus on further consolidating and expanding bilateral friendly and mutually beneficial cooperation.

Hu felt very glad to meet with Bashir for the first time, saying that he would like to strengthen contact with Bashir in the future to jointly develop the friendly and mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries.

Hu elaborated the positive attitude of the Chinese government to stimulate bilateral ties. He pointed out that China and Sudan enjoy profound traditional friendship. Over the past 46 years since the establishment of diplomatic ties both sides have been maintaining good political relations. In recent years, with the joint efforts of both countries the bilateral economic and trade cooperation expands rapidly, especially in the field of infrastructure construction, which has brought about tangible benefits to the two peoples. He reiterated that the Chinese government attaches importance to developing relations with Sudan and expects to work with Sudan to constantly push forward the friendly cooperative relations between the two countries.

Bashir said that the Sudanese people value their friendship with the Chinese people and feel deeply grateful for their help and support. The mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries in such areas as economy and trade, infrastructure construction and energy resources has made major achievements and the traditional Sudan-China friendship gets increasingly consolidated and strengthened. The Sudanese government welcomes more Chinese businesses to invest and build plants in Sudan and take a full part in Sudan's economic construction.

Bashir introduced the north-south peace process of Sudan to Hu, saying that the Sudanese government will actively work with the African Union in a bid to solve the problems related with Darfur properly.

Hu noted that to build peace between the north and south of Sudan complies with the fundamental interest of the Sudanese people and helps maintain stability and development of Sudan. China supports Sudan's north-south peace process, and the Chinese government has decided to participate in UN's peacekeeping operations in Sudan to provide necessary guarantee for the peace process. He reiterated the principled stance of the Chinese government on the Darfur problem, stressing that the international community should help the Sudanese government ease the crisis and try to solve related problems at the earliest date possible.