Senior legislator Jiang Zhenghua Monday met with Vice President of the Chilean Senate Carlos Ominami Pascual, pledging to cement bilateral parliamentary exchanges.

Noting Chile as the first country to forge diplomatic ties with China in Latin America, Jiang, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature, said the two countries achieved great progress in developing ties since establishment of diplomatic ties 37 years ago.

The two sides not only have fruitful cooperation in various fields but also kept sound coordination on many international issues, he added.

As parliamentary exchanges are an important part of bilateral ties, Jiang said the NPC and the Chilean parliament have kept close cooperation, and set up political dialogue mechanism last year to further facilitate parliamentary exchanges.

"The NPC values its relations with the Chilean parliament, and will further enhance parliamentary exchanges with Chile and increase personnel exchanges," Jiang said.

In response, Ominami said the Chilean Senate will continue to beef up cooperation and exchanges with the NPC and contribute to overall bilateral ties.

He also hopes the two countries' enterprises carry out more win-win cooperation.

The delegation are here at the invitation of the NPC financial and economic commission.

(Xinhua News Agency April 23, 2007)