On the morning of June 1, 2003, Chinese President Hu Jintao met French President Jacques Chirac ahead of the South-North leaders dialogue meeting.

During the meeting, Hu hailed the sound development of the Sino-French relations at present, noting that an all-around partnership between China and France has been continuously strengthened and enriched with the concerted efforts of both sides. The two countries have enjoyed fruitful trade relations and carried out high-quality and multi-faceted bilateral cooperation in the fields of culture, science and technology, and education. China and France have been supportive of and cooperative with each other on a series of major international issues and maintained close consultation, coordination and cooperation in international organizations such as the United Nations.

Hu said that both as permanent members of the UN Security Council, China and France share common interests and shoulder great responsibilities in international affairs and they also have identical or similar views on a lot of important international and regional issues.The new Chinese leadership attaches great importance to developing the all-around partnership with France and hopes to keep close high-level exchanges with it. China also favors further improvement of the strategic dialogue and consultation mechanism between the two countries and encourages and supports strengthened cooperation between big companies in the two countries. We are fully confident of the prospect of future development of the Sino-French relations.

Hu stressed that though the current international situation is complicated and in constant changes, peace and development remain the two main themes. From a long-term perspective, multipolarity will continue to be the trend of the world. There are nearly 200 countries in the world, with a population of 6 billion. All these countries have varied traditions, religions, cultures, economic development levels and social systems. As a result, it is impossible to impose a uniform civilization, social system or development mode on all those countries. Hu called on all peace-loving peoples and nations in the world to join hands in safeguarding world peace and promoting common development.

Chirac completely agreed with Hu's positive comments on the French-Chinese relations and views on the world situation. France and China have witnessed fast development of bilateral relations and fruitful trade cooperation. He suggested that the two countries set nuclear energy, aviation, transportation, agriculture and finance as the priority fields for future cooperation. He hoped that the activities of Year of Culture in both France and China will be a complete success. On the international situation, Chirac stressed that multipolarity is an inevitable trend in the world and Europe and China will play an increasingly important role.

Hu thanked the French government and people for their understanding and support to China in its effort to fight against Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).

The two presidents also exchanged views on a number of major international and regional issues, such as reconstruction in post-war Iraq, the situation on the Korean Peninsula and the solution to the conflict between Palestine and Israel.