On the afternoon of December 23, 2004, Chinese President Hu Jintao held sincere, friendly and fruitful talks with Venezuelan President Hugo Rafael CHAVEZ Frías, who was on a state visit to China, at the Great Hall of the People. Both sides agreed to enhance exchanges in all areas, deepen the mutually beneficial cooperation and comprehensively push forward the China-Venezuela strategic partnership of common development.

Hu Jintao highly appraised the achievements registered after the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and Venezuela three decades ago. He said that over the past 30 years, the bilateral relations have been developing smoothly. In particular, after President Chavez came into office, relations between the two countries have been further upgraded with frequent exchanges of top-level visits and deepened mutual understanding. Meanwhile, mutual political trust has been enhanced, economic and trade cooperation has been increasingly expanded and the two countries have shown mutual support for and closely coordinated with each other in international affairs. China is grateful to the Venezuelan government for its long-term adherence to the one-China policy, and appreciates and welcomes Venezuela's recognition of China's full market economy status.

Chavez said that Venezuela-China relations now enjoys a solid basis after three decades of development, and the two sides have conducted fruitful cooperation in political, economic, cultural, scientific and technological fields, which is still showing a good momentum. He indicated that the Venezuelan government and people are thankful to the Chinese government and people for their assistance to Venezuela's economic and social development over the years, stressing that Venezuela will unswervingly follow the one-China policy and support China's lofty cause of national reunification.

Hu Jintao said that the new leadership of China attaches great importance to developing China-Venezuela relations and stands ready to work with Venezuela to further the strategic partnership of common development between the two countries towards a new high. To that end, China would like to make the following proposals:

First, the two sides should maintain the high-level contacts and deepen the political relations. To put it more specifically, the two sides should expand exchanges between their governments, parliaments and political parties and give better play to the important role of the mechanism of the China-Venezuela High-Level Mixed Committee in promoting relations between the two countries and their comprehensive cooperation.

Second, the two sides should expand mutually beneficial cooperation to bring benefits to the two peoples. The economies of China and Venezuela are highly complementary; therefore it is conducive to realizing mutual benefit, bringing about a win-win situation and promoting common development if the two sides enhance cooperation. The two sides may expand the scale of energy cooperation, initiate cooperation projects in mineral resources, enrich the content of agricultural cooperation, enhance investment and cooperation in infrastructure construction and jointly explore the ways of high-tech cooperation.

Third, the two sides should strengthen mutual consultation and coordination and have closer international cooperation. China stands ready to better coordinate and co-operate with Venezuela in international as well as regional affairs so as to jointly safeguard and promote world peace, stability and development.

Chavez fully agreed to the proposals made by Hu. He said that both Venezuelan and Chinese people are making efforts to build their own country. Therefore enhancing exchanges of visits and information between the two sides at all levels will help realize common development. He added that the two sides should make a further plan of the cooperation in all areas on the existing foundation so as to bring the bilateral cooperation to a higher level. He also put forward some suggestions on cooperation between the two countries in such fields as economy and trade, expressing the hope that the two sides will score achievements one after another in cooperation in such areas as agriculture, energy resources and infrastructure construction.

Following the talks, Hu Jintao and Chavez attended the signing ceremony for 8 cooperation agreements, including the agreements on economic and technological cooperation and on infrastructure construction.

Prior to the talks, President Hu Jintao held a welcoming ceremony for President Chavez upon his visit to China at the North Hall of the Great Hall of the People. Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress Mr. Cheng Siwei, State Councilor Mr. Tang Jiaxuan, Vice Chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference Mr. Huang Mengfu, Vice Chairman of the Central Committee of the Chinese Peasants and Workers Democratic Party Mr. Chen Zongxing and Director of the State Development and Reform Commission Mr. Ma Kai attended the welcoming ceremony.