China's Top Legislator to Attend UN Meeting, Visit European NationsLi Peng, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), will attend the Conference of Presiding Officers of National Parliaments to be held at the United Nations headquarters in New York in late August and early September, Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao announced Monday.After the conference slated for August 28-September 1, Li will visit Iceland, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia and Russia from September 2, Zhu said. Li and the Chinese delegation's participation in the upcoming UN conference, the largest and highest-level inter-parliamentary meeting since the establishment of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) 111 years ago, will help promote the friendly exchanges between China's NPC and the IPU as well as parliaments of other member states, the spokesman stressed. Li will make a speech at the opening ceremony on September 30. He will also preside over meetings on part of the agenda as vice-chairman of the conference. Some 150 major leaders of parliaments from countries across the world are expected to attend the conference, which is connected to the UN millennium summit conference. Li's visit to the five European countries will also help cement China's relations with them as well as the relations between China's NPC and parliaments of the countries, Zhu said. |
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