China attaches great importance to the development of long-standing, stable and healthy relations with India, said in New Delhi He Guoqiang, a member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), while meeting with Bahiron Singh Shekhawat, vice president of India, Thursday.  

He, also head of the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee, is leading a delegation of the Chinese Communist Party on a three-day visit to India.

He spoke highly of the stance on Tibetan issue that Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee expressed during his visit to China last year. Shekhawat shared his view, saying that India will scrupulously abide by the stance.

Shekhawat, who is also chairman of Rajya Sabha (Council of States) of India, said that there has been steady improvement in the relations between India and China over the past few years and the bilateral economic and trade cooperation has been further expanding.

Shekhawat encouraged more people-to-people contact on the basis of the friendly intercourse between the governments, parties and parliaments of both countries so as to push forward the all-round friendship and cooperation between the two countries.

(Xinhua News Agency February 20, 2004)