Chinese President Xi Jinping called on China and Switzerland to expand cooperation and promote peaceful development in a letter published in the Swiss newspaper, Neue Zürcher Zeitung.

In the letter, entitled “A Shared Commitment to Practical Cooperation and Peaceful Development”, Xi says the two countries can deepen engagement by maintaining high-level exchanges, breaking new ground in practical cooperation, expanding people-to-people exchanges, and improving free trade.

President Xi Jinping will travel to Switzerland on January 15, for his first visit to the country as Chinese head of state. He will attend this year's World Economic Forum in Davos on January 17, and will also visit the UN office in Geneva, the World Health Organization and the International Olympic Committee during the trip.

Regarding the economic meeting in Davos, President Xi says China will work with European countries, among others, to address the challenges of global development, and continue to be a huge market supporting world economic growth.

As for his visit to the UN, Xi says he is looking forward to talking to different sides and sharing ideas on making the world a better place.

In recent years, China-Switzerland relations have yielded fruitful achievements in various aspects. Since the inception of the China-Switzerland free trade agreement (FTA) in 2014, bilateral trade and mutual investment have flourished. Against the sluggishness of the global economy, bilateral trade reached 44.27 billion US dollars in 2015.