Visiting senior Chinese legislator Wang Zhaoguo held talks Dublin on Thursday with Sean Barrett, chairman of Dail Eireann, Ireland's lower house of parliament, with both sides agreeing to increase cooperation.

Wang hailed the smooth development of China-Ireland ties since the two countries established diplomatic relations in 1979, saying that the two peoples have all along treated each other sincerely.

He said China and Ireland have already become "good friends and good partners," maintaining "mutually political trust, mutually beneficial economic cooperation, mutually cultural exchanges and mutual coordination in international affairs."

China is willing to make joint efforts with Ireland so as to continue the momentum of high-level contacts, increase mutually political trust, enhance economic and trade cooperation and expand people-to-people and cultural exchanges, thus bringing the friendly cooperative relations between the two countries to a new high, said the Chinese legislator.

Wang, vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislative body, led an NPC delegation to Ireland for a five-day official goodwill visit starting from Wednesday.

During the meeting, Wang conveyed China's NPC Standing Committee Chairman Wu Bangguo's cordial greetings and good wishes to Barrett who expressed his thanks and asked Wang to convey to Chairman Wu his cordial greetings.

Wang noted that parliamentary exchanges are an important part of state relations, saying that such exchanges are of great significance to increasing mutual understanding and strengthening public opinions and social basis in developing relations between the two countries.

The main aim for his trip to Ireland is to deepen the exchanges and cooperation between the parliaments of the two countries, he said.

China's NPC attaches great importance to the development of relations with the Irish parliament, he said, adding that China's NPC is ready to strengthen friendly exchanges with the Irish parliament in all sectors so as to enhance experience sharing on running the country, promote mutually beneficial cooperation in various fields and boost the sustainable, healthy and stable development of China-Ireland ties.

Barrett, for his part, said Ireland appreciated China's huge achievements in economic and social development and that Ireland values the development of relations with China.

Ireland wishes to strengthen exchanges between the parliaments of the two countries, promote bilateral friendly cooperation in areas like economy and trade, science and technology and culture, and increase the friendship between the two peoples.

Ireland is the second leg of Wang's ongoing three-nation European tour which has taken him to Ukraine. He is scheduled to visit Poland before returning to China.