By NNN-PTI
Beijing : Sino-Indian strategic relations are expected to get further fillip during the second innings of Chinese Communist Party chief, Hu Jintao, who is all set to offer a red carpet welcome to Congress President Sonia Gandhi here this week.
Chinese President, Hu, who had proposed to turn the disputed Sino-India boundary into a “bond of good neighbourliness and mutually beneficial cooperation”, was Monday re-elected General Secretary of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) for a second successive five-year term.
“We will pursue an independent foreign policy of peace and unswervingly follow the path of peaceful development and win-win strategy of opening-up. We will develop friendship and cooperation on the basis of the five principles of peaceful co-existence and push for the building of a harmonious world of lasting peace and common prosperity,” Hu told the media immediately after his re-election.
Hu, who has met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh several times, including during his maiden state visit to New Delhi last November, is said to have established a personal rapport with the reform-minded Indian leader, who is expected to visit Beijing this year.
Hu will be hosting UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi here on Oct 25 and discuss bilateral ties, CPC-Congress exchanges and regional and international issues of common interest.
Sonia is expected to be the first head of a foreign political party to meet with Hu and the new-elected Chinese leadership, signalling the high importance Beijing has placed on Sino-Indian relations, which was upgraded to strategic level in 2005 during Prime minister Wen Jiabao’s maiden visit to India.