Chinese President Meets Speaker of Israeli Knesset

Chinese President Meets Speaker of Israeli Knesset

Visiting Chinese President Jiang Zemin said Thursday that China cherishes its traditional friendship and mutually beneficial cooperation with Israel and appreciates the importance Israeli government attached to China.

"China would like to join hands with Israel to push forward the mutually beneficial bilateral cooperation," Jiang said during his meeting with Avraham Burg, speaker of the Knesset (parliament). He expressed his hope that the Israeli parliament should play a positive role in promoting the Sino-Israeli ties.

Reviewing the history, Jiang said that during the World War II, Chinese people extended friendly hands to Jewish people, who had suffered persecution of the Nazi Fascism, by kindly receiving them. Living together, the Chinese and Jewish people forged friendship and the traditional friendship of the two nations laid sound foundation for the establishment and development of the bilateral ties, he added.

He expressed his satisfaction with the progress of the bilateral ties, saying that significant achievement has been made in the cooperation in politics, trade and economy, science and technology, agriculture and culture since the two countries forged diplomatic ties in 1992.

For his part, Burg extended his warm welcome to Jiang, saying that representatives of all parties in the Knesset were present at Thursday's meeting.

He described China as an important country in the world because of its long history, splendid culture, large population, vast territory and its role in the international arena.

Israel would like to further the exchanges and cooperation with China in the fields of economy, culture and agriculture, he noted.

Before the meeting, Burg presided over a ceremony to welcome Jiang.

Earlier Thursday, President Jiang also paid a visit to Yad Vashem, or Holocaust Memorial, and paid respects to late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin at his grave.

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