Chinese President Hu Jintao and his Indian counterpart Abdul Kalam exchanged congratulations Sunday on the launching of the Sino-Indian Friendship Year and vowed to further develop the bilateral ties and boost cooperation in 2006.

China and India are good neighbors with a long-standing friendship between the two peoples, said Hu in his congratulatory message.

The Sino-Indian relations have been pushed to higher levels thanks to joint efforts of the two countries since they established diplomatic relations, Hu said.

The establishment of the Sino-Indian strategic cooperative partnership oriented to peace and prosperity in 2005 marked a new stage for the development of the bilateral ties, and the declaration on setting the year 2006 as Sino-Indian Friendship Year demonstrated the common aspiration of the two governments and two peoples to strengthen good-neighborly relations, expand mutually-beneficial cooperation and boost common development, Hu said.

In the year 2006, China will take the Sino-Indian Friendship Year as an opportunity to boost the traditional Sino-Indian friendship, expand bilateral dialogues, exchanges and cooperation in various fields to enrich the contents of bilateral ties and push forward the development of the bilateral strategic cooperative partnership, Hu said.

Kalam said in his message that the far-reaching historic and cultural exchanges between the two ancient civilizations of India and China have greatly contributed to the civilization of human beings.

The leaders of India and China jointly initiated the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence over 50 years ago, Kalam noted.

Kalam said India was satisfied with the remarkable progress achieved in the bilateral relations with China during the recent years, and that the establishment of bilateral strategic cooperative partnership oriented to peace and prosperity showed the determination of both sides to seek cooperation and paved way for bringing the bilateral ties to a new high.

The launching of the Sino-Indian Friendship Year is a landmark in the history of bilateral relations and India looks forward to taking the Friendship Year as an opportunity to further deepen and enrich the bilateral relations, he said.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh also exchanged congratulatory messages over the Sino-Indian Friendship Year on Sunday.

Source: Xinhua