Indian President Pratibha Patil will start a state visit to China on Wednesday at the invitation of Chinese President Hu Jintao.

This is another important high-level visit between China and India after the state visit to India by Chinese President Hu in 2006 and the official visit to China by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2008.

The Indian president's shows that the political trust between the two countries is increasing day by day and Sino-Indian relations have entered into a period of maturity and stability.

The visit comes at a time when the two countries are celebrating the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations, which provides an opportunity for further increasing trust, understanding and cooperation.

During the visit, the Indian president will discuss with Chinese leaders how to expand and deepen Strategic and Cooperative Partnership between the two countries, visit the Shanghai World Expo, attend a forum of businesspersons of the two countries and inaugurate an Indian Buddhist temple in Luoyang.

In an interview with Xinhua on the eve of the visit, Patil said that China is India's largest neighbor, and the two countries have a long history of cultural exchanges. To develop friendly cooperation with China is one of the priorities of India's foreign policy, she said.

Patil said that President Hu Jintao's state visit to India in 2006 was a major milestone in Indian-Chinese relationship, which has generated a great deal of goodwill and during which the two sides agreed on a 10-pronged strategy to expand and intensify bilateral Strategic and Cooperative Partnership.

Subsequently, during the visit of Indian Prime Minister Singh to China in 2008, the two countries concluded a "Shared Vision for the 21st Century", which forms the basis for bilateral cooperation on global issues.

Patil said that India and China are both developing countries and are focused on enhancing economic growth and social progress. Hence, there are many areas in which the two countries can exchange views and learn from each other's experiences, she said.

She also expressed her happiness over the fast growth of bilateral economic and trade relations, as well as the fruitful cooperation in multilateral international frameworks carried out by the two countries.