On November 11, 2009, Chinese President Hu Jintao met with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak in Kuala Lumpur, exchanging in-depth views and reaching broad consensus on furthering China-Malaysia strategic cooperation. Hu emphasized that China is ready to work with Malaysia to continuously expand and deepen pragmatic cooperation in all areas and strive to push their strategic and cooperative relations to a higher level.

Hu said that China and Malaysia are friendly neighbors and the traditional friendship between both peoples enjoys a long history. In the 35 years since China and Malaysia established diplomatic ties, bilateral relations had been increasingly mature with substantial cooperation results in all fields. In 2004, the two nations established strategic cooperative relations, resulting in greater mutual trust and increased trade cooperation, Hu said. Last year, bilateral trade exceeded 53 billion U.S. dollars and Malaysia had become China's biggest trading partner among Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries. Two-way investment has been dynamic and cooperation in energy and infrastructure has been fruitful. Exchanges and cooperation in the fields of education, culture and defense have been expanding continuously and people-to-people contacts have also been very close. China and Malaysia had also worked closely on major international and regional issues, Hu said. China highly appreciated Malaysia's firm support to China's position on issues concerning its core interests, such as Taiwan, Tibet and Xinjiang.

Hu pointed out that a review of bilateral relations over the past 35 years revealed several points on the development of these ties. First, the China-Malaysia friendship has withstood the tests of time and changing international situation and has become common treasure of both peoples. The development of bilateral ties enjoys a firm social basis. Second, both sides have adhered to the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, understood and accommodated each other's major concerns and supported each other on issues concerning the other side's core interests to cement the political foundation of bilateral ties. Third, leaders of the two countries had always perceived and handled bilateral relations from a strategic height and long-term perspective. Leaders from both sides had actively pushed forward practical cooperation in all fields and added strong impetus to the growth of bilateral ties.

Hu emphasized that in order to further advance China-Malaysia relations, China and Malaysia should earnestly implement their joint action plan of strategic cooperation, actively explore new areas, seek new ways and cultivate new growth points of cooperation for common development. He put forward four proposals in advancing the bilateral ties between China and Malaysia. First, efforts should be made to deepen the bilateral trade and economic cooperation. The two nations should stabilize bilateral trade, make full use of the favorable conditions of the China-ASEAN free trade zone to be built next year, explore their cooperative potential and promote the steady growth of bilateral trade. Calling for more cooperation in investment between the two sides, Hu encouraged Chinese companies to take part in infrastructure projects in Malaysia. Both sides should utilize multiple financing channels to push investment cooperation for new progress. Both sides should expand energy cooperation to enlarge the areas and enhance the level of cooperation. The cooperation in the financial sector should also be broadened and efforts should be made to strengthen exchanges between the central banks and financial regulatory authorities of the two countries, enhance multilateral coordination and advance financial cooperation in East Asia so as to safeguard regional and international financial stability. Second, the two countries should deepen their cooperation in education, science and technology, culture and tourism, Hu said, adding that more young people from Malaysia were welcome to study in China. The president hoped the two sides would work closely to further improve the Confucius School in Malaysia and looked forward to an impressive show by Malaysia at the 2010 Shanghai Expo. He hoped the Expo will build a new platform for promoting China-Malaysia exchanges and cooperation. Third, both sides should enhance cooperation in defense and security. Efforts should be made to increase exchange, build mutual trust and expand cooperation. Fourth, both sides should coordinate closely in international and regional affairs. China attached great importance to the status of Malaysia in ASEAN, the Islamic world and developing countries, Hu said. China would, as always, support the ASEAN integration process and the development of the ASEAN Community, he said. China would continue to actively expand friendly cooperation with Islamic nations and work with them to safeguard the rights and interests of developing countries, the Chinese leader added.

Najib, on behalf of the Malaysian government and people, warmly welcomed Hu's state visit to his country. He said President Hu's visit was of special significance as the two countries celebrated the 35th anniversary of their diplomatic relations. Over the past 35 years, China's development has achieved great accomplishments that draw worldwide attention and China-Malaysia relations have also made significant headways with the establishment of the important and comprehensive strategic and cooperative relations. Hu's current visit would lift the relationship between the two countries to new heights and make bilateral cooperation yield more substantive outcome, he said.

Najib fully agreed with President Hu's important suggestions on furthering bilateral ties. He said Malaysia-China relations have withstood the tests of time and were built on the core value of mutual respect and trust. Expanding Malaysia-China relations was conducive to the development of both countries and the whole region and therefore enjoyed broad prospects. Najib said China had become Malaysia's biggest trading partner during the first nine months of this year and there was still great room for the development of bilateral trade ties. Malaysia was willing to expand communication and cooperation with the Chinese side in areas of trade and commerce, finance, energy, agriculture, fishery, education, science and technology, tourism, defense and security, he added. As a key member of the G20, China had played an important role in pushing for the establishment of a fairer and more reasonable international financial order and Malaysia is ready to coordinate closely with China in international affairs, said Najib. China attached great importance to its cooperation with ASEAN and had actively participated in the cooperation process of East Asia, which the Malaysian side highly appreciated. Malaysia also highly appreciated China's active and constructive role in dealing with the Asian financial crisis and the international financial crisis, he added. Malaysia was ready to work with China to explore new areas of bilateral cooperation on the new basis and further deepen and reinforce their strategic and cooperative relations, Najib said.

After the meeting, Hu and Najib attended a signing ceremony of a series of cooperation documents and met the press. On the noon, President Hu attended the luncheon given by Najib in his honor.

On the morning of the same day, President Hu called on the staff of the Chinese Embassy in Malaysia and representatives from Chinese-funded institutions, overseas Chinese and Chinese students studying in Malaysia.

Ling Jihua, Wang Huning and Dai Bingguo attended the above activities.