President Ben Ali met with Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jia xuan February 17. During the meeting, the president said, China is a great country and the Chinese people, a great people. Tunisia is ready to further develop the friendly relations and cooperation with China.

China and Tunisia enjoy good bilateral relations, Ben Ali said adding that he is thankful to the Chinese government for its support to the economic construction of Tunisia over the years. Tunisia is greatly admired at the domestic and foreign policies upheld by the Chinese leaders and the great achievements scored by China in its economy and social development.

Tang reiterated that China attaches importance to developing the friendly cooperative relations with Tunisia and is ready to work together with Tunisia in further promoting to a new stage the vigorous and long stable friendly relations and cooperation between the two countries.

China is ready to strengthen consultations and make concerted efforts with Tunisia, which is a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council in protecting the rights and interests of the developing countries, Tang said.

The Chinese Foreign Minister stated that the Chinese Government attaches great importance to protect the human rights of the Chinese people. Over the past two decades of reform and opening up, the Government has further raised the level of human rights enjoyed by the Chinese people in all dimensions in accordance with the situation of China.

President Ali said, with a population of 1.2billion, China has done a good job in solving the problems of food, housing, communications and education. This demonstrates its respect for human rights. Tunisia is opposed to the use of double standards on the human rights issue.

Tang and his Tunisian counterpart Ben Yahia held talks on further developing the bilateral relations and other issues of common concern. Tang expressed the gratitude for Tunisia's understanding and support for the cause of reunification of China and its position on the human rights issue.

He emphasized that China attaches importance to promote and protect the human right and other basic freedoms of the Chinese people. At present, China has the best human rights situation in its history. China is willing to conduct exchanges and cooperation in the realm of human rights on the basis of mutual equality and respect.

However, it is opposed to the act of randomly sponsoring motions in the UN human rights commission, with an aim of censuring other countries on their human rights issues. And it is also opposed to the politicalization of the human rights issue and use it as an excuse to interfere into the internal affairs of other countries.

Facts have proved that dialogue is better than confrontation. For the developing countries, the rights to subsistence and development are the fundamental human rights. Tunisia has choosing the path of development suitable to its characteristics and scored noteworthy achievements in maintaining social stability, promoting the development of its economy and improving the livelihood of its people. This is the best way in protecting the human rights.

The Foreign Ministers of the two countries exchanged views in depth on the issues of establishing international political and economic new order, strengthening south-south cooperation and south-north dialogue, the "China-African Forum for Cooperation--Ministerial Meeting Beijing 2000" proposed by China, making positive contributions to the Middle East peace process, fair and reasonable solution to the Iraqi issue. The two sides reached agreement on the issues discussed and expressed that they would strengthen the coordination and cooperation with each other in the United Nations and other international conferences.