State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan yesterday met with visiting EU
Commissioner for External Relations and Neighborhood Policy Benita
Ferrero-Waldner and vowed to strengthen the bilateral partnership
of cooperation.
Tang said China-EU relations are of strategic importance and are
developing soundly. The two sides are working closer together in
major regional and international issues, and are reaching greater
consensus as they face up to the challenges of globalization.
He said China attaches great importance to the signing of an
agreement on a cooperative partnership with the EU, and hopes the
two sides can make active efforts to reach an agreement that will
embody the overall situation of the China-EU relations and promote
a long-term, stable and sound development of the relations.
Waldner agreed with Tang's remarks on the importance of the
China-EU relations. She said the bilateral relations are developing
soundly at present.
China's fast growth and the EU's expansion will benefit the
development of China-EU relations, she said.
The EU is willing to work with China to further push forward the
bilateral relations, she noted.
The two sides also exchanged views on some other regional and
international issues including China-Japan relations, the Korean
and Iranian nuclear issues.
Waldner is in Beijing for an official visit from January 16 to
18 at the invitation of Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing.
(Xinhua News Agency January 18, 2007)
