Czech President Vaclav Klaus said on Monday that China was one of his country's most important partners in Asia and the two countries foresaw even greater prospects in the future.

 

Klaus made the statement while meeting with visiting Chinese Vice Premier Hui Liangyu.

 

The president said that frequent high-level visits in recent years showed the close relationship between the Czech Republic and China. Prague was glad to see that bilateral trade ties had also developed rapidly.

 

China played an increasingly important role not only in Asia, but also in terms of international affairs, and Czech-Chinese cooperation had wide-ranging future prospects, Klaus said.

 

For the Chinese part, Hui said bilateral cooperation had been achieved in the fields of trade, culture, education and tourism.

 

China attached great importance to its relations with the Czech Republic and was ready to promote more extensive bilateral cooperation with concerted efforts in various areas, Hui said.

 

(Xinhua News Agency April 18, 2006)