On March 18, 2003, President Hu Jintao received a call from Russian President Vladimir Putin. Putin warmly congratulated Hu on his being elected as China's president in the First Session of the tenth National People's Congress (NPC). Putin said that Russia would work with China to advance their bilateral good-neighborly cooperative friendship and strategic cooperative partnership.

Hu thanked Putin for his congratulations. He said that the  newly elected central administration would continue to give priority to relations with Russia and to develop and consolidate bilateral strategic cooperation for the grand objective of common prosperity and development, while making its due contribution to regional stability and world peace.

The two leaders also exchanged opinions on bilateral relations and the latest development of the Iraq issue. Hu pointed out that China had always advocated a political solution to the issue within the framework of the United Nations. He said that arms inspections were the right way to solve the issue of Iraq's weapons of massive destruction, noting China had made great efforts in this regard.  Hu mentioned an eminent Chinese expert who recently lost his precious life in carrying out UN inspections in Iraq.

Hu stressed that the only right path is to enable the UN to play its due role and deliver a political solution to the Iraq issue within the UN framework, and the door to peace should not be shut. Both leaders agreed that China and Russia shared identical stance on this issue and would continue to strengthen consultation and cooperation in jointly safeguarding world peace.