At the invitation of the Government of India, Mr. Liu Qi, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Secretary of the CPC Beijing Municipal Party Committee, at the head of a CPC delegation, paid a 4-day goodwill visit to India from November 24 to 27. During the visit, Mr. Liu Qi met Indian Home Minister Patil, Delhi Chief Minister Dikshit and CPI (M) general secretary Surjeet respectively. He also visited the Tata Consultancy Service.

On November 25, Mr. Liu Qi held warm and friendly talks with Mr. Patil, Home Minister of India. Mr. Patil expressed cordial welcome to the Chinese delegation. He said that India and China were neighbors with long histories of ancient civilizations. India-China relations were developing rapidly at present. Both sides were exerting efforts to strengthen friendship and cooperation and keen to handle the questions left over by history in a positive way. The Government of India was willing to further the cooperation with China in politics, economy, culture and other fields. Mr. Liu Qi noted that China and India were the biggest developing countries in the world. Developing economy and improving people's living standards were the common goals of the two countries. Creating a peaceful, stable and developing neighboring circumstances meets the common needs of China and India. Friendship for generations and comprehensive cooperation between India and China served the fundamental interests of the two peoples. Maintaining good neighborly relations and mutual beneficial cooperation would not only benefit the future generations but also have far-reaching and positive influences on the peace and development of Asia and the world as a whole. Developing good neighborly friendship of long-term and stability constituted an important part of China's good-neighbor policy.

Prior to the talks, Mr. Surjeet, CPI (M) general secretary met the delegation. The meeting was also attended by Mr. Ma Wenpu, Vice Minister of the International Department of the Central Committee of CPC, Ms. Zhai Hongxiang, Member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Beijing Municipal Party Committee and Vice-Mayor of Beijing Municipality who were members of the delegation and Mr. Zheng Qingdian, Charge d'Affaires ad interim of the Chinese Embassy in India.