Beijing
New Delhi
The Republic of India
Your Excellency President Abdul Kalam,
On the occasion of the New Year's Day of 2006, I would like to extend, on behalf of the Chinese government and people and in my own name, my warm congratulations and best wished to you and via you to the Indian government and people.
Both countries are friendly neighbors linked by mountains and rivers and the friendship between both peoples goes back to ancient times. Since the establishment of diplomatic ties, with the joint promotion by both sides, bilateral relations have reached one new level after another. In 2005 both sides declared the establishment of their strategic cooperative partnership facing peace and prosperity, which marks that bilateral relations have entered a new development sage. Both sides also defined the year of 2006 as the "Year of Friendship between China and India", which shows the concerted aspiration of the two governments and their people to strengthen good-neighborly friendship, expand mutually beneficial cooperation and promote common development.
Both countries are big developing nations of great significance in the world. The generations of friendship between both sides not only conform to the fundamental interest of both countries and their people, but also are conducive to peace, stability and development of Asia and the world at large. In the new year, China would like to work along with India in taking the "Year of Friendship between China and India" as an opportunity to further promote their traditional friendship, strengthen bilateral dialogue, exchanges and cooperation in all areas and at various levels, continuously deepen the connotation of bilateral relations and push bilateral strategic cooperative partnership for all-round and in-depth development.
May your great country achieve prosperity and its people well being.
May the friendship between the two peoples increase with each passing day and pass on from generation to generation.
Hu Jintao
President of the People's Republic of China