Chinese President Hu Jintao is due to pay a four-day state visit to India as of Nov. 20. This is the first time for China's head of state to visit India in a decade and also the first visit to India by the Chinese head of state since the forging of Sino-Indian strategic cooperative partnership. This visit is of milestone significance and it will advance bilateral, friendly ties in a comprehensive way, said Chinese Ambassador to India Sun Yuxi in a recent interview with People's Daily reporter.

Sino-Indian ties have developed in a healthy manner in recent years, particularly following Premier Wan Jiabao's India trip in April last year, and gratifying situation has since emerged in all spheres. With their political mutual trust deepening, the two nations have forged their strategic cooperative partnership geared to peace and prosperity and charted the direction for the growth of the future bilateral friendship; and the two nations have signed the "Agreement on the Political Parameters and Guiding Principles for the settlement of India-China Boundary Question", laying the basis for the proper resolution of the issue left over by history.

Bilateral trade volume reached 18.7 billion US dollars in 2005, a 23-fold rise over the annual trade figure 15 years ago, and it is expected to top the 20 billion-US dollar mark this year. China has become the second biggest trade partner of India. Moreover, the two nations have also kept in closer touch and gone on widening the room for cooperation in other spheres.

Meanwhile, the varied, colorful celebration activities for the "Year of Sino-Indian Friendship" have made the friendly sentiments and understanding between them still closer. China and India have been related increasingly more to each other as the Asian neighbors, as the biggest populous developing nations and as the countries with ancient civilizations closely connected in history.

Hu' visit is sure to enrich the contents or connotation of Sino-Indian strategic partnership for peace and prosperity and clarify the concrete aspects for strengthening strategic cooperation, said Sun. The visit will substantiate the Sino-Indian strategic, cooperative partnership and, from this sense, it will be another important milestone in the history of the development of China-India relations.

Apart from an extensive contact with India's political, business and academic circles, Hu is scheduled to meet and confer with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on a wide-ranging exchange of views on bilateral ties, and regional and international issues of mutual concern. And they will also have consultations on such topics as how to further expand bilateral ties and how to build a harmonious world.

The year 2006 is a "year of Sino-Indian friendship," and Hu's visit will certainly push up the amity year activities to a new upsurge, Sun acknowledged. The development trend for Sino-Indian ties is good on the whole, with peace, friendship and cooperation as its mainstream, but in the course of development there are also some hitches, such as problems left over by history and trade frictions, which will eventually be settled properly instead of being turned into hindrances or obstacles to the expansion of bilateral relations.

Noting that China and India are the fastest developing nations in the contemporary world with a combined population of 2.4 billion, or over one third of the global population, Sun said. The common development of these two nations does good not only for their own people but will brings glad tidings for the world economy. From this perspective, bilateral cooperation by working hand to hand is the common aspiration of the people of the two nations, as well as the inner voice of the peace-loving and development-seeking people the world over.

By People's Daily Online