Chinese President Hu Jintao met in Jakarta with Indian Prime Minister Singh on the afternoon of April 23. Both sides expressed satisfaction with the development of China-India relations and spoke highly of Premier Wen Jibao's recent visit to India, indicating they will make joint efforts to promote China-Indian good-neighborliness and friendship from the perspective of the fundamental interests of the two peoples.

Hu said China and India are important neighbors for each other. The two countries had close exchanges historically and the two peoples bear profound feelings for each other. As ancient civilizations and large developing nations, China and India have jointly advocated the five principles of peaceful co-existence. China-India relationship is one of the most important bilateral ties in Asia and the world at large. The strategic influence of the relationship has gone far beyond the bilateral relations and Asia. We should become good neighbors, friends and partners. China-India relations are facing with opportunities of development at present and the two countries need to grasp the favorable opportunity to promote bilateral friendly and mutually beneficial cooperation.

Hu said to conduct bilateral cooperation in various fields is an important part of China-India relations. China and India enjoy respective advantages in economy, science, technology, culture and education. With strong complementarities, the two economies enjoy bright prospect of cooperation. We need to enhance bilateral cooperation in humanities so as to ensure China-India friendship is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people and can be passed down to future generations. The two nations have reached consensus over the political guidelines for the settlement of boundary issues, which has laid a good foundation for future solution to the boundary issues.

Singh indicated he fully agreed with President Hu's views on bilateral relations and his suggestions for the further development of bilateral cooperation. He said India-China friendly exchanges enjoy a long history and bilateral cooperation has developed rapidly. Outstanding achievements have been scored in bilateral economic and trade cooperation and the trade volume between the two countries has also witnessed dramatic growth. China is a great neighbor for India. The India government gives top priority to its relations with China, believing the two nations are partners for common development rather than rivals. India would like to take the opportunity of establishing bilateral strategic partnership oriented to peace and prosperity to carefully implement the consensus reached and comprehensively boost bilateral relations.

Singh said India would like to work with China to seek a balanced and reasonable solution to the boundary issues.