Beijing
The People's Republic of China
Your Excellency President Hu Jintao,

Upon the arrival of the New Year and the "Year of the Friendship between India and India", I would like to extend my warm congratulations and sincere greetings to Your Excellency, the Chinese government and its people.

The profound historical and cultural bonds between our two ancient civilizations have made great contributions to the progress of mankind and also entrusted a unique aspect to the current bilateral relations. Over 50 years ago, the older generations of leaderships of both sides jointly initiated the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. In order to further show the prospect of bilateral relations, during Premier Wen's visit to India last year, both sides decided to establish the "India-China strategic cooperative partnership facing peace and prosperity". Such substantive enhancement of bilateral relations has shown our determination for cooperation and also created conditions for both sides to elevate the level of bilateral relations to a new height in the "Year of Friendship". At the same time, we commit to joint resolution of outstanding issues between both sides.

In recent years, bilateral relations have achieved satisfactory remarkable progress and shown optimistic prospect. Nowadays, the development of both countries has exerted impact in all areas around the globe. We both commit to building a peaceful environment in a bid to fulfill the priority task of national prosperity. This common pursuit has added enormous value to bilateral partnership.

We have held activities of the "Year of Friendship between India and China" in celebration of bilateral relations with a time-honored history through friendly exchanges and contact. This is a milestone in bilateral relations. We hope to take this as an opportunity to further deepen and enrich bilateral relations.

I wish Your Excellency good health, your great country prosperity and its people happiness.

Please accept, Your Excellency, the assurances of my highest consideration.

A.P.J.Abdul Kalam

President of the Republic of India