Senior diplomats said Premier Wen Jiabao's impending visit to five countries in Europe and Asia will further improve the mutual understanding and trust between China and the five countries, highlighting the visit as "of great significance."

According to Foreign Ministry's announcement, Wen will pay official visits to France, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Portugal and Malaysia from December 4 to 15, and he will also attend the ninth Summit between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the ninth ASEAN plus China, Japan and South Korea Summit and the First East Asian Summit in Kuala Lumpur.

Zhao Jun, director of the Foreign Ministry's European Department at a briefing on Wen's visit in Beijing Wednesday called the visit to the four European countries "another big event" after President Hu Jintao's visit to Europe in November.

China and France have maintained good momentum of development in the all-round strategic partnership and the political mutual trust continues to grow as the two state leaders realized their first annual mutual visit in 2004 and met twice in 2005, Zhao said.

The latest Chinese official statistics show that China and France have achieved a breakthrough in economic and trade cooperation with the two-way trade volume valued at US$17.58 billion, up 31.3 percent over the same time of previous year in2004.

From January to October this year, bilateral trade volume reached US$16.64 billion, up 17.3 percent over the same time in 2004.

Great successes were also scored in the Chinese culture year in France and French culture year in China, Zhao said, noting relevant activities remarkably helped the two peoples to expand mutual understanding and friendship.

"We are satisfied with the current comprehensive growth of Sino-French relations," Zhao stressed, adding that Wen will hold talks with French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, meet with French President Jacques Chirac and President of the French national Assembly Jean-Louis Debre, deliver an important speech in Paris, visit French and European aviation and space companies and sign a series of important agreements of cooperation.

In response to a reporter's question on Wen's visit to Slovakia, Zhao recognized that the joint statement signed between China and Slovakia in 2003 marked a landmark for the growth of bilateral relations in the new era.

Political mutual trust is further boosted, bilateral economic and trade cooperation has scored remarkable growth and exchanges in the fields of science and technology, culture, education, sports and tourism continue to increase, Zhao said, highlighting that Wen's visit to Slovakia will be the first by a Chinese leader since Slovakia gained independence in 1993.

"Wen will exchange views with Slovak leaders on furthering China-Slovakia friendly and cooperative ties and issues of common concern, and the two sides will also sign some bilateral documents," Zhao said.

When touching on the China-Czech relations, Zhao said that Czech President Vaclav Klaus and Czech Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek's respective successful visits to China last and this year witnessed increased bilateral exchanges and cooperation in various fields and helped enhance the scale and level of bilateral cooperation.

China will join in hands with Czech to push forward bilateral relations on the basis of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, Zhao said, noting that Wen's visit to Czech will also be the first visit by a Chinese leader since the country claimed independence in 1993.

"Wen will exchange views with Czech leaders on promoting bilateral ties and issues of common concern and sign some bilateral documents." Zhao added.

The relations between China and Portugal have developed smoothly since they forged diplomatic ties in 1979, Zhao said.

"Wen is the first Chinese premier to visit Portugal over the past 13 years," he said, adding that the high-level contacts would enhance mutual understanding, trust and cooperation.

During his stay in Portugal, Wen is expected to hold talks with Prime Minister Jose Socrates, and meet President Jorge Sampaio and Parliament Speaker Jaime Gama, he said.

The two sides would also sign some cooperative documents covering politics, trade, judiciary, education and public health.

Wen's visit to Malaysia and his attending to the ten plus one, ten plus three and East-Asian summits would be an important diplomatic move by Chinese leaders at the end of the year, and would achieve good results, said Cui Tiankai, director of the ministry's Asian Department.

Malaysia is China's friendly neighbor and an important member of the ASEAN, and Wen's visit is of significance to furthering bilateral good-neighborly relationship and the strategic partnership between China and the ASEAN, he noted.

According to Cui, Wen will meet Supreme head of state Sultan Tuanku Syed Sirajuddin Syed Putra Jamalullail and Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, exchanging views on bilateral cooperation, the relationship between China and the ASEAN, as well as regional and international issues of common concern.

Wen will deliver speeches when attending the regional summits, he said, noting the year of 2006 will be the 15th anniversary of the establishment of the dialogue partners between China and the ASEAN, and the ten plus one meeting of this year is particularly important, he said.

China will sum up the experience over the past 15 years and put forward its own proposals to further cooperation, he noted, stressing that China will push cooperation on bird flu control during the meeting.

As for the ten plus three summit, Cui said, China will give a positive appraisal for the achievements of East-Asian cooperation and advocate building up an East-Asian community and supporting ASEAN's leading role in the community.

The first East-Asian summit will be attended by ten ASEAN members, China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand. The participants will exchange views on international and regional political and economic issues.

"China would like to have dialogue with the other participants on major regional issues to push forward cooperation and achieve common prosperity in Asia and other regions," Cui said.

(Xinhua News Agency December 1, 2005)