On July 5, 2005, Chinese President Hu Jintao met in the hotel where he stayed in Astana with Iranian Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref, who came to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit.

Hu said that the Chinese side welcomes and supports Iran's efforts to establish and develop the relationship with the SCO and congratulates Iran on becoming an observer of the SCO.

Hu said that since this year China and Iran have maintained frequent high-level contacts with the political mutual trust constantly strengthened. Both sides share broad consensuses on a number of major regional and international issues. China and Iran are both developing nations and faced with the task of developing the economy and improving the living standards of the people. Developing China-Iran friendly cooperative relations enjoys profound basis and is in the common interest of both sides. The Chinese side is willing to strengthen the exchange and cooperation with the Iranian side in all fields and at all levels and to consolidate the bilateral coordination and collaboration in the United Nations, the SCO and other international and regional organizations.

Hu said that the Chinese economy and the Iranian economy are highly complementary. The bilateral cooperation has been fruitful. The bilateral trade keeps growing year by year. The energy cooperation has also scored new progress. Both sides have become each other's important partners of economic cooperation. We hope that both sides make joint efforts to constantly advance the bilateral economic cooperation to new levels. The Chinese side agrees to list Iran as one of the tourist destinations for Chinese citizens. The relevant departments of both sides can carry out concrete discussions on this issue.

Aref said that China always occupies an important position in Iran's diplomatic policies. Iran-China friendly relations keep growing and both countries have carried out sound coordination and collaboration in major international and regional issues. The growth of Iran-China relations enjoys great potentials. Iran welcomes more Chinese businesses to participate in the economic development of Iran in an all-round manner and hopes to expand personnel exchanges between the two sides and widen the cooperation in such fields as culture and education.

The two sides also exchanged views on international and regional issues of common concern. Hu shared with Aref China's perspective on the reform of the United Nations (UN). Aref said he fully agrees with China's perspective. He said that to reform the UN we need to listen to the views of vast number of developing nations and address their concerns. The reform should be conducive to strengthening the solidarity between member states and improve the working efficiency of the UN.