On the morning of December 22, 2008, Chinese President Hu Jintao met at the Great Hall of the People with former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, who is here for the closing ceremony of "China-Japan Friendly Exchange Year of the Youth".

Hu hailed the successful conclusion of the exchange year and praised Fukuda's contribution to the improvement and development of China-Japan relations.Hu said significant progress had been made in Sino-Japanese ties in 2008 as leaders frequently exchanged visits and reached broad consensus on a range of key issues, which strongly pushed forward the improvement and development of bilateral ties. The two countries have continuously expanded exchanges and cooperation in all areas and scored remarkable results. They have also cooperated in international and regional affairs. During his state visit to Japan in May, Hu signed together with the then Prime Minister Fukuda the fourth political document between China and Japan, which further consolidated the political foundation of bilateral ties and opened up broad prospect for the development of bilateral ties in the new period. Hu met Aso Taro twice since Taro became Japanese prime minister in September. They reached consensus on pushing forward a strategic and reciprocal relationship.

Hu said China is ready to work with Japan to view relations from a long-term and strategic perspective and earnestly implement the consensus and relevant cooperation documents reached by both sides, in an effort to build up political trust, deepen mutually beneficial cooperation and expand humanities exchanges. Hu highlighted the continuation of exchanges among youth of the two countries, which paves the way for long-term development of bilateral ties and pushes for more fruitful China-Japan strategic, reciprocal relations for the benefit of both peoples and the people worldwide.

Fukuda said the year 2008 is of great significance to the development of Japan-China relations. Hu's state visit to Japan in May had great impact on advancing Japan-China relations. He added Japan is ready to strengthen exchanges and cooperation with China, properly handle relevant issues and jointly cope with the international financial crisis and other global challenges based on the spirit set forth in the four political documents between the two countries in a bid to push Japan-China ties towards a strategic, reciprocal direction. In order to ensure the long-term development of bilateral ties, Fukuda said that Japan is ready to make efforts to keep closer people-to-people exchanges and increase mutual understanding and friendship between the two peoples, especially between the youth. He said Japan would promote youth exchanges with China.

Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, Lu Hao, the first secretary of the Secretariat of the Communist Youth League of China (CYLC) and other officials attended the meeting.