Hu Jintao, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Chinese president, met in Vientiane yesterday with Lao Prime Minister Bouasone Bouphavanh on ways to further bilateral relations and cooperation.

 

President Hu was here on a state visit at the invitation of Choummaly Sayasone, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party and the Lao president.

 

Recent years have witnessed all-round and in-depth development of relations between the two parties and the two countries, marked by the mutual political trust and mutually-beneficial economic cooperation between them and mutual support in international affairs, Hu noted.

 

China and Laos are true good neighbors, friends, comrades and partners and the Chinese-Lao friendship has become the common treasure to the two peoples, he said.

 

Speaking highly of China-Laos relations, Bouasone noted the excellent cooperation between the two countries in politics, defense, public security and diplomacy, and he said their trade and economic ties are also growing fast.

 

Chinese investment in Laos is helping the country to give fuller play to its economic advantages as well as its poverty relief efforts, Bouasone said.

 

President Hu said there is a good momentum for the development of bilateral trade and economic cooperation and that what the countries should do next is tap the potentials of cooperation and raise the cooperation levels.

 

He called for expanding bilateral trade and deepening mutually beneficial cooperation, including those in border areas.

 

Bouasone said Hu's visit has brought the existing friendly relations and cooperation between the two countries to a new height and that the Lao central and local governments would implement in real earnest the consensus reached by the top leaders of the two countries regarding cooperation in various areas.

 

Hu arrived here from Vietnam where he paid a state visit and attended the 14th APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) Economic Leaders' Meeting from November 17 to 19 in Hanoi.

 

Laos is the second leg of Hu's four-nation tour, which will also take him to India and Pakistan.

 

(Xinhua News Agency November 21, 2006)