On July 24, Vice-President Hu Jintao held talks with Indonesian Vice-President Megawati. The two sides had a wide exchange of views on bilateral relations and international and regional issues of common concern.

Vice-President Hu said that China and Indonesia are close and friendly neighbors. Since the establishment of the new China, Indonesia is one of the first countries that have established diplomatic relations with the People's Republic. At the end of last year, President Wahid successfully visited China and reached consensus with President Jiang Zemin on the establishment and development of a long-term stable relationship of good-neighborliness, mutual trust and all-round cooperation, which pointed out the direction for the future development of bilateral relations. On that basis, the two countries signed a joint statement on the future direction of bilateral cooperation and established an intergovernmental joint committee, which shows that bilateral relations are progressing on the right track. The Chinese Government has always attached great importance to the friendly and mutually beneficial cooperation with Indonesia and would like to work with the Indonesian side to actively implement the joint statement on the future direction of bilateral cooperation and push the friendly cooperation between the two sides to develop in a sound and stable manner.

Megawati said that relations between Indonesia and China have been very good recently, with constant progress. Since the new government were sworn in Indonesia, it has attached importance to developing cooperation of mutual support and benefit with China and spoken highly of the positive efforts made by the Chinese Government in developing bilateral friendly relations and cooperation.

On the Taiwan question, Vice-President Hu said that it is an internal affair of China. We will, as always, make unremitting efforts to push for the peaceful reunification process between the two sides of the Taiwan Straits. The peaceful settlement of the Taiwan question is in the common interests of all the countries in the region. In that sense, we need support from friendly countries. We would like to express gratitude to the Indonesian government for its adherence to the one China policy.

Megawati said that the Indonesian government would stick to the one China policy. As a sincere friend of China's, Indonesia will continue to adhere to that policy and refrain from having any official exchanges with Taiwan.

The two sides also had an in-depth exchange of views on maintaining multi-level exchanges, deepening economic, trade and other cooperation, supporting each other in terms of maintaining national sovereignty and territorial integrity, and strengthening coordination and cooperation in international and regional affairs and reached a lot consensus. The two sides are of the view that China and Indonesia are both developing countries in the region and share the same or similar views on some major international issues. The two sides have had effective coordination on East Timor and human rights issues and in promoting East Asian cooperation. They would like to continue to strengthen consultation and cooperation in the UN and on other multilateral occasions and make joint efforts to maintain regional peace and stability and the legitimate interests of the vast number of developing countries.

After the talks, Vice-President Hu Jintao and Megawati attended the signing ceremony of the Treaty Between the People's Republic of China and the Republic of Indonesia on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters.

In the evening, Megawati hosted a grand welcoming banquet for the delegation led by Vice-President Hu.

July 24, 2000