On the morning of May 31, 2003, Chinese President Hu Jintao met with Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who came to St. Petersburg for celebrations marking the 300th anniversary of the city.

Hu said that the people of China and India are close neighbors, have friendly exchanges and co-exist peacefully since ancient times. To further develop good-neighborly and friendly relations and realized common prosperity is the common wish of the two peoples and the trend of times. The new central leadership in China attaches great importance to relations with India and would like to work with India to greatly strengthen cooperation in all areas and bring bilateral constructive and cooperative partnership to a new level. On the border issue left by history, the two countries should proceed from the friendship between the two countries and properly handle it, following the principles of consultations on equal footing, mutual understanding and accommodation and mutual adjustment. He welcomed Vajpayee paying a visit to China.

Vajpayee said he was happy to see the healthy development of India-China relations in recent years. He pledged to join hands with the Chinese side to maintain and further thrust the momentum of the positive development of bilateral ties. On the border issue, Vajpayee expressed the hope that a fair and reasonable solution acceptable to both sides could be found through negotiations. Vajpayee also expressed appreciation at Chinese efforts to keep SARS under control. He said he was looking forward to visiting China.