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Chinese President Meets with Thai PM
Jiang Meets Thailand Prime Minister
Chinese President Jiang Zemin met Wednesday morning in Hong Kong with Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and welcomed him to go to Shanghai for the informal summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in October and pay an official visit to China.
Jiang, who is here to attend the Fortune Global Forum 2001, said that he was very glad to meet Thaksin, whom he described as an old friend of the Chinese people. He expressed the belief that Sino-Thai relations will be developed into a new stage with Thaksin as the prime minister of Thailand.
Thaksin, who was also pleased to meet Jiang in Hong Kong, said Thailand and China enjoy a deep traditional friendship, and, as part of continuing exchange of high-level visits between the two countries in recent years, he has visited China for several times. He said the two sides should devote more efforts to developing the bilateral relations from generation to generation.
The Thai prime minister highly appreciated the keynote address Jiang made Tuesday evening at the opening of the Fortune forum, saying that Thailand shares the same view with China on many issues.
Jiang said the friendship between China and Thailand goes back to ancient times and bilateral exchanges and cooperation in various fields have been developing in an all-round manner since the two countries forged diplomatic ties 26 years ago. Sino-Thai relations could be seen as a model of good neighborliness and mutually beneficial cooperation between countries of different social systems.
Leaders of the two countries exchange visits frequently like relatives, Jiang said, citing his visit to Thailand in 1999 and Queen Sirikit Kitiyakorn's successful visit to China last year on behalf of the Thai king. Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji will pay an official visit to Thailand very soon, he added.
The president said China sees Thailand as one of the closest friends and is willing to make concerted efforts with Thailand to strengthen the all-round cooperation between the two countries in the new century and carry forward the traditional friendship between them.
Jiang thanked Thaksin and the Thai government for their support to China on human rights, the Taiwan issue and China's entry into the World Trade Organization, among other issues.
He said the current Fortune Global Forum, with a theme of Next Generation Asia, is of special significance to Asia. A major cradle of human civilization, Asia had long been trodden upon by foreign powers, Jiang said, but those days are gone forever.
In the course of the current economic globalization, Asian countries should learn what is advanced from the West, Jiang said, stressing that what's more, Asian countries should strengthen cooperation and stick to their own roads for development.
Also present at the meeting were Chinese Vice-Premier Qian Qichen, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Chief Executive Tung Chee Hwa, Thai Deputy Prime Minister Pitak Intrawityanunt, and a number of Chinese and Thai officials.
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