Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's visit to South Korea, starting Friday, will strongly boost the friendly cooperative relationship between China and South Korea, Chinese ambassador Zhang Xinsen told Xinhua in a recent interview.

Zhang said Wen's second official trip to South Korea after previously visiting in April 2007 would allow him to exchange views with South Korean leaders on further deepening the strategic cooperative partnership between the two countries. He would also have extensive contacts with various sectors here, which would surely boost the bilateral ties and bear richer fruit in the future.

The ambassador said, as good neighbors, China and South Korea had made joint efforts to achieve rapid and all-round development of the bilateral ties since the two countries established diplomatic relations in 1992. In 2008, Chinese President Hu Jintao and his South Korean counterpart Lee Myung-bak successfully exchanged visits and upgraded relations between the two sides to a strategic cooperative partnership. Since then, the exchanges and cooperation between the two countries' various fields have been further deepened.

Multi-level communication channels, covering government agencies, parliaments, academic sectors and media, had been established, and high-level exchanges between the two sides also remained frequent, the ambassador said.

The two sides also maintained good communication and coordination on issues such as trilateral cooperation among China, Japan and South Korea, integration of East Asia and global climate change under various bilateral and multilateral frameworks, and reached consensus on further strengthening the strategic cooperative partnership, maintaining peace and stability in the region and expanding cooperation in international affairs, he said.

In the economic and trade field, two-way cooperation had been broadened and enhanced, Zhang said, noting that China was the largest trade partner, export destination country and import market for South Korea, while the latter was the third biggest trade partner for China. The two countries also worked closely when the world was hit by the global financial crisis, Zhang said, citing the bilateral currency swap accord involving some 28 billion U.S. dollars, in an effort to safeguard regional and global financial stability.

Meanwhile, the active people-related exchanges also contributed to deepening mutual understanding and friendship between the two peoples, the ambassador said. This year, during which China is hosting World Expo 2010 in Shanghai, and 2012, in which a similar event will be hosted in South Korea's southern city of Yeosu, were designated as Visit China Year and Visit Korea Year, respectively. More than one million South Koreans are expected to travel to China to visit the Shanghai Expo, and the South Korean Pavilion has become one of the most popular pavilions, Zhang said.

China and South Korea, both important countries in Asia and in a crucial stage of development, had a broad prospect of cooperation, the ambassador said.

Since uncertainties remained in the global economy, both China and South Korea were adopting effective measures to oppose trade and investment protectionism, accelerate the process of establishing a free trade area between the two countries, and enhance cooperation in finance, green growth and other major fields, he said.

Moreover, the two counties should continue to play positive roles in trilateral cooperation among China, Japan and South Korea, and multilateral collaboration under the framework of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) plus three, and should also actively take part in building new structure and new order of the regional and global economy and finance.

Zhang said he believed that, thanks to joint efforts by the two countries in further deepening mutual trust, enhancing friendship and strengthening cooperation, the strategic cooperative partnership between the two sides would surely achieve greater development.