President Meets Barbados PMPresident Jiang Zemin, in a meeting with Barbados Prime Minister Owen Arthur this afternoon, expressed satisfaction with the growth of bilateral relations.Jiang said the two countries have had fruitful cooperation in political, economic, cultural and other areas since the establishment of their diplomatic relations 23 years ago, adding that they have also supported each other in international affairs. Jiang notes that Prime Minister Arthur is another Barbados prime minister has visited China 10 years after the previous one, saying this demonstrates the importance of Sino-Barbados relations in the eyes of the Barbados government and Arthur. He said he believes that Arthur's visit to China will help promote mutual understanding and friendship between the two peoples, thus ushering in a new chapter in bilateral relations. Jiang said he was delighted that Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji and Arthur had a frank exchange of views on bilateral relations and international and regional issues of common concern, and reached wide-ranging consensus. China and Barbados, both developing countries, are faced with the same tasks of developing their economies and raising the people's standards of living, Jiang said. He said that the two countries also share identical views on safeguarding world peace and security and establishing a new international political and economic order. Therefore, they can learn from each other, he said. Jiang said that the people of the two countries have a long history of friendly exchanges despite the geographic distance that separates them, and China and Barbados are trustworthy friends. Arthur said the Barbados people have deep sentiments toward the Chinese people although the two countries are far apart on the map, noting that his country attaches great importance to its relations with China. He said he believes that his China visit will help promote the further development of bilateral relations. Barbados said he is grateful for the Chinese government's assistance for Barbados over the past two decades, reiterating that the Barbados will strictly follow the One-China policy. Jiang expressed his appreciation for the Barbados government's consistent adherence to the One-China policy. |
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