China and Armenia signed a memorandum of understanding in Beijing on Monday on exchange and cooperation between the two parliaments.

"The signing of the memo marks a new era for the relationship between the two parliaments", Chinese top legislator Wu Bangguo said when witnessing the signing ceremony with visiting chairman of the Armenian National Assembly Ovik Abramyan, according to a press release from the news office of the Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature.

In his meeting with Abramyan, Wu, Chairman of NPC Standing Committee, highlighted the roles that the two parliaments play in promoting Sino-Armenian relations as "highly important", expressing his hope that the two sides could maintain the exchange at various levels and cement cooperation in fields such as legislation and legal supervision.

China highly values its ties with Armenia, Wu told Abramyan, saying that the country is willing to promote relations with Armenia to a higher level based on the principles of mutual respect, equality and reciprocity.

Echoing Wu's views on the ties between the two nations and the two parliaments, Abramyan said Armenia was committed to developing its ties with China especially in the fields of trade, science and technology, and education.

The Armenian National Assembly would regard the signing of the agreement memo as an opportunity to boost friendly exchange and pragmatic cooperation and inject new vigor into relations, said Abramyan.

He said that Armenia would continue to adhere to the one-China policy.

(Xinhua News Agency December 15, 2008)