On the morning of November 1, 2005, General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee and President of the People's Republic of China Hu Jintao met with Vietnamese Premier Phan Van Khai at the Premier's Palace in Vietnam.

Hu Jintao said that both sides share a traditional friendship that the older generations of leaderships of the two parties and countries personally created and carefully cultivated. They also share common ideal and the same task of developing economy and improving people's livelihood. In the new century, while the political relations between both parties and countries are increasingly close, bilateral economic and trade cooperation have also witnessed rapid growth. The bilateral trade volume increased from 30 million US dollars when bilateral relations were normalized in 1991 to 6.74 billion US dollars in 2004. China has become Vietnam's largest trading partner. Both economies are highly complementary to each other and currently both sides are facing a favorable opportunity of formulating and implementing their respective new five-year plan. Enhanced economic and trade cooperation between both sides is conducive to their common development and has brought tangible benefits to both peoples. China would like to work with Vietnam to set up new concepts, explore new approaches, pursue new ways and continuously expand new areas for cooperation in a bid to push bilateral economic and trade cooperation to another new level.

Phan Van Khai first expressed warm welcome for Hu's visit to Vietnam on behalf of the Vietnamese government. He noted that General Secretary Hu reached lots of consensuses with General Secretary Nong Duc Manh and President Tran Duc Luong on developing bilateral relations and issues of common interest, which will further strengthen mutual trust and cooperation between the two parties and countries. Both sides are socialist countries under the leadership of the Communist Party, which objectively requires enhanced bilateral cooperation on the basis of mutual trust and benefits. Vietnam is satisfied with the development of economic and trade cooperative relations with China. Bilateral economic and trade cooperation enjoys huge potential and broad prospect. During General Secretary Hu's visit to Vietnam, both sides signed a couple of agreements on economic and technological cooperation and their implementation will bring new breakthrough to bilateral economic and trade cooperation. Vietnam thanks China for offering loans and support in many large programs. Vietnam would like to work with China to strengthen investment cooperation, push for boundary trade and develop tourist cooperation so as to keep closer bilateral economic and trade cooperative relations.

Alternate Member of the Political Bureau of CPC Central Committee, Member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee and Director of General Office of CPC Central Committee Wang Gang and other Chinese companions, as well as Member of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam and Vice Premier Vu Khoan and other officials attended the meeting.

On the morning of the same day, Hu also laid wreath at the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum.