China's top legislator Wu Bangguo in Manila on Monday met with parliament leaders from Thailand, Vietnam, Mongolia, the Republic of Korea (ROK) and Malaysia.

In his meeting with Thai Parliament President and Speaker of House of Representatives Uthai Pimchaichon, Wu, chairman of China's National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, said China and Thailand are "good friends, good neighbors and good partners."

The two countries kept frequent high-level exchanges and scored tangible economic cooperative results, Wu said, adding that all these exchanges increased understanding, trust and friendship between the two sides.

Wu said the bilateral cooperation within the framework of the Association of the Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China (10+1)and ASEAN and China, Japan, ROK (10+3) enriched the Sino-Thai cooperation and also promoted the growth of ties between China and ASEAN.

Noting that the Thai people harbored deep feelings towards the Chinese people, Uthai said the Thai parliament will make unremitting efforts for promoting bilateral ties and is willing to further the cooperation with NPC within the Association of Asian Parliaments for Peace (AAPP) and other international organizations.

In a separate meeting, Wu told Vietnamese National Assembly Vice Chairman Nguyen Phuc Thanh that China and Vietnam have same social system, stick to the leadership of the communist party and take economic construction as the core task. With concerted efforts made by both, Wu said, the Sino-Vietnamese ties will be further consolidated and developed.

Thanh praised China for its contribution to the maintenance of peace and stability in Asia and noted the marked progress made in bilateral ties between the two countries. He also said that during the process of reform and opening-up, Vietnam learned a lot from China.

In his meeting with Mongolian State Great Hural Chairman Sanjibeghz Tumurochir, Wu Bangguo said China attached importance to its good-neighborly and friendly relations with Mongolia. Chinese President Hu Jintao's recent state visit to Mongolia laid a solid foundation to the stable growth of bilateral ties in the long run, he said, stressing China will push forward the development of China-Mongolia ties in line with "treating neighbors in a friendly way and taking neighbors as partners."

Tumurochir also spoke highly of President Hu's Mongolian tour. On the inter-parliament relations, he said Mongolia, one of the founders of AAPP, is willing to keep multi-facet and all-round cooperation with China's NPC in AAPP and on other international affairs.

In their meeting here, Wu Bangguo told former ROK National Assembly Speaker Lee Man-sup that China-ROK ties witnessed rapid progress though the two countries only forged diplomatic ties some ten years ago. He expected to exchange views with ROK leaders on bilateral ties and issues of common concern in his visit to Seoul starting on Tuesday.

Expressing ROK political leaders and people's welcome for Wu's visit, Lee spoke highly of China's unique role in the recent Beijing six-party talks on the Korean peninsula nuclear issue. China's efforts made the six-party talks possible, he told Wu.

As an old friend of China, Lee said he will continue to make efforts for the promotion of ROK-China ties and cooperation between Korean National Assembly and NPC.

In his meeting with Malaysian Senate President Abdul Hamid Pawanteh, Wu said China and Malaysia will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties next year. The smooth growth of bilateral ties brings benefits to the two peoples and promote and regional stability and development, he said.

Wu said the NPC will strengthen cooperation with the Malaysian parliament for the growth of bilateral ties.

Recalling that the Malaysian people have had contacts with the Chinese people for some 500 years, Hamid said China is an important neighbor of Malaysia and Malaysia hopes to continuously enhance relations with China.

(Xinhua News Agency September 2, 2003)