China's ruling Communist Party on Tuesday confirmed that Congress president Sonia Gandhi has accepted President Hu Jintao's invitation to visit the country, saying the event will further enhance friendship between leaders of the two countries.
"Not long ago, we were very pleased to be informed that Sonia Gandhi has included her visit to China in the agenda of her recent overseas visits," Vice Minister of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee Zhang Zhijun said.
"We attach great importance to this upcoming visit and the international department is making every possible preparation for her visit to China," Zhang told PTI.
Zhang said President Hu Jintao, during his visit to India last year, had met with Sonia and invited her to visit China.
"According to my knowledge Sonia Gandhi has also accepted the invitation with pleasure," he said without divulging the dates for the high-level visit.
"We are confident that the upcoming visit to China by Sonia Gandhi will further enhance the mutual understanding and friendship between the leaders of the two countries and also promote the exchanges between the two political parties and strive for the development of our state-to-state relations," Zhang said.
It is not clear if Sonia, who is chairperson of the United Progressive Alliance, will visit Beijing before the 17th National Party Congress of the CPC, which is set to open in Beijing from October 15.
The party Congress, held once in five years, will elect the new Chinese leadership for the next five years.
Sonia last visited China in 1996. Her planned trip to China in 2003 was cancelled.
The ruling CPC is apparently quite keen to host Sonia, who had visited China in 1988 along with her late husband Rajiv when he was prime minister, which was considered a ground-breaking event in Sino-Indian relations.
"The Indian National Congress is a very important political force in the political arena of India. We highly appreciate the Indian National Congress for the role it has played in safeguarding the friendly relations between China and India and promoting the cooperation between the two countries," Zhang said.
He pointed out that the CPC maintained "sound" inter-party relations with major political parties in India.
"We believe that inter-party exchanges have become a crucial part of relations between the two countries.
The CPC is also willing to strengthen exchanges, enhance mutual understanding, promote friendship with major political parties in India so as to drive forward our comprehensive relations so that we can make more contribution to the deepening of our strategic cooperative partnership between China and India, which will be beneficial to the two countries, the two peoples, peace, stability, development of the region," Zhang said.