The Eighth Foreign Ministers' Meeting of the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Regional Forum (ARF), scheduled for July 24-27 in Hanoi, Vietnam, will give the foreign ministers opportunities to exchange opinions on regional and international affairs, and to discuss measures to boost mutual trust among the countries.

China hopes the ARF meeting of ARF, a major official arena for dialogue on multilateral security and cooperation of the Asia- Pacific region, will help safeguard peace and stability of the region, Zhang said at a routine press conference.

Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan will attend the meeting, a foreign ministers' meeting between the ASEAN and China, Japan and the Republic of Korea, and a dialogue meeting between China and the ASEAN.

While commenting on the current Sino-Vietnamese relations, the spokeswoman said the two countries have been maintaining a good relationship, which is marked by exchanges of visits by leaders of the two countries and growing friendly cooperation in various areas.

Substantial improvement has been achieved in economic and trade relations since the two countries signed a joint declaration on all-round cooperation late last year, Zhang said, adding that the bilateral trade volume was over two billion U.S. dollars in the year 2000.

She stressed that developing a stable, good-neighborly and fully cooperative relationship is not only in the fundamental interests of the two peoples, but also necessary for regional and global peace and development.

(People's Daily 07/10/2001)