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)