Chinese President Meets with Australian Foreign Minister ����President Jiang Zemin, in a meeting in Beijing on July 12 with Australia's Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, said that China is willing to make a joint effort with Australia to establish bilateral ties in the 21st century with long-term stability and healthy growth. ����Jiang said that both China and Australia have a great influence in the Asia-Pacific region and have a common interest in guarding regional peace and stability and promoting regional prosperity and development. ����China has always placed great importance on its friendly cooperative ties with Australia, he said, and, in recent years, with a concerted effort from both sides, bilateral ties have made considerable progress and had sound development momentum. ����He cited the fact that the leaders of both countries have had regular exchanges of visits and contacts and bilateral communication and cooperation in various areas has been smooth, consultations and dialog have been reinforced, and economic and trade links are getting closer, but he said there is still potential and great prospects for further developing mutually beneficial cooperation. ����Downer said that Australia emphasizes its relations with China and is satisfied with the smooth development of bilateral ties. The Australians are looking forward to Jiang's state visit later this year, he said, adding that he believes that it will promote bilateral cooperation in various fields. ����Jiang said that he too is looking forward to meeting with Australia's leaders to jointly plan bilateral ties in the next century, and that although the world has entered an information age, information technology can never substitute for face-to-face contact between world leaders and people. ����He expressed the hope that the two countries can increase direct contacts, deepen mutual understanding and cooperation, and said that this would certainly push bilateral ties forward and benefit the prosperity and stability of the Asia-Pacific region. (Xinhua) HomeNews 1999-07-13 Page1 Full Story in Chinese