Chinese Foreign Minister Meets Indonesian CounterpartThe Chinese side will make concerted efforts with all ASEM (Asia-Europe Meeting) members for the success of the third ASEM Foreign Ministers' Meeting scheduled for May 24 and 25.Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan made the remark Thursday in a meeting with his Indonesian counterpart Alwi Shihab, who is here to attend the meeting. Extending a welcome, Tang briefed Shihab on the preparations for the meeting and voiced his appreciation for Indonesia's support for China as a host of the meeting. Tang said that the Chinese government attaches importance to this meeting, and Chinese President Jiang Zemin, Premier Zhu Rongji and Vice-Premier Qian Qichen will attend relevant activities. Shihab expressed his appreciation for China's efforts for this meeting, and said that Indonesia will make every effort to assist China in this process, so as to further promote mutual understanding and cooperation between Asia and Europe. Tang spoke highly of the development of Sino-Indonesian friendship and cooperation in various fields in recent years, saying that China will, in the spirit of bilateral cooperative documents, continuously push forward the development of bilateral good-neighborly friendship and cooperation, and economic and trade cooperation in particular. Tang expressed his thanks for Indonesia's understanding and support in the past years on the issues of Taiwan, Tibet and human rights. Shihab said China is a close friend of Indonesia and the current bilateral ties are the best in history. He voiced appreciation for the Chinese government's consistent support for Indonesia's unremitting efforts to safeguard sovereignty, territorial integrity and national unity. Shihab also briefed Tang on the political situation in Indonesia. Tang said that China is greatly concerned over the development of situation in Indonesia and sincerely hopes that Indonesia is stable politically and make progress in economic construction. |
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