Chinese FM Meets DPRK, Russian FMsForeign Minister Tang Jiaxuan met separately Thursday in Bangkok his counterparts Paek Nam Sun of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and Igor Ivanov of Russia, exchanging views with them of mutual concerns.All of the three are here participating in the 7th Meeting of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), which was attended by 23 foreign ministers or their representatives of all ARF participating countries to discuss political and security dialogue and cooperation within the Asia-Pacific region. When meeting with DPRK's Paek, Tang said this year is a year of significance in the Sino-DPRK relations, marked by DPRK's top leader Kim Jong-il's visit to China in May. The Chinese side thinks highly of Kim's visit and hopes to work together with the DPRK side to implement consensus reached by the leaders and further promote bilateral ties. Tang welcomed and congratulated DPRK's entry of the ARF, saying that it is an important diplomatic achievement DPRK scored recently. DPRK was accepted as a member of the ARF at the meeting. The two ministers noted with satisfaction the smooth development of bilateral ties and agreed to strengthen cooperation and coordination within the ARF framework and in the international affairs. When meeting with Ivanov of Russia, Tang said China pays much attention to the development of Sino-Russian partnership of strategic coordination, adding that Russian President Putin's recent visit to China is successful, and it is very necessary to maintain and promote high-level exchanges. The two ministers also exchanged views on the situation of the Korean Peninsula and other issues of mutual concerns. |
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