Chairman Li Peng of the Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress (NPC) met with President Andres Saldivar of the Chilean Senate in Beijing Wednesday.
Li said Chile is the first Latin-American country to establish diplomatic relations with China and their bilateral ties have witnessed steady progress in recent years, citing the frequent exchange of high-level visits and increasing cooperation in all fields.
President Jiang Zemin's recent successful visit to Chile, in particular, has been a major event in Sino-Chilean relations, he said.
China places great emphasis on its relations with Chile, Li said. Although far apart geographically and different in both social systems and cultural traditions, China and Chile are both developing countries of the Asia-Pacific region and share the same or similar views on many important issues.
He also expressed appreciation and gratitude to Chile's pursuit of the One-China stance.
Meanwhile, Li said China highly emphasizes its cooperation with Latin American countries as they have the common goal and good cooperative foundation in many areas. Latin-America, with its vast land and abundant resources, promises great development potential, Li said, expressing appreciation over the integration among Latin-American countries and their efforts in safeguarding their own interests as well world peace and development.
China is willing to increase its cooperation with Latin-America on the basis of the Five Principles of Peaceful Co-existence, he said.
Li reaffirmed China's independent foreign policy of peace and its advocation of a multi-polar world, which is conducive to the establishment of a peaceful, stable, just and rational world political and economic order.
China holds that all countries, big or small, rich or poor, strong or weak, are all equal members of the world community, Li said, stressing China is against hegemony and power politics in all forms.
China's NPC, also, is willing to further reinforce cooperation with the Chilean Parliament, Li said, hoping Saldivar's current visit would help push forward bilateral ties.
Saldivar recalled his first visit to China in 1986, during which he met with Chinese leaders including Deng Xiaoping and Li Xiannian and was briefed about China's development plan. Today, he said, he was pleased to see that those plans have came into reality.
He spoke highly of the Sino-Chilean relations, saying China is an important force in the international arena and Chile attaches great importance to its relations with China.
(Xinhua 04/25/2001)
