Premier Zhu Rongji Meets Irish President

Premier Zhu Rongji Meets Irish President

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Visiting Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji met with Irish President Mary McAleese at the Irish presidential palace on Monday. Both believed that the two countries should have more contacts and exchanges to enhance mutual understanding.

Premier Zhu conveyed Chinese President Jiang Zemin's cordial regards to President McAleese. The Irish president, on behalf of the Irish people, also expressed the warm welcome to Zhu for his official visit.

She said both Ireland and China are in an important stage of development, and Premier Zhu's current visit will contribute to strengthening bilateral cooperation and enhancing mutual understanding and friendship between the peoples of the two countries.

She recalled her visit to China's Shenzhen University in 1997, saying she was deeply impressed by the Chinese people's hospitality. She believed Premier Zhu will also share the same feelings through his current visit.

Zhu, on behalf of President Jiang, invited the Irish president to visit China at her convenience and McAleese said she is willing to pay a visit as early as possible.

During the meeting, Zhu also briefed her on the developments in Tibet and welcomed her to visit there.

On the same day, Premier Zhu also met separately with Seamus Pattison, speaker of Irish House of Representatives, and Senate Speaker Brian Mullooly.

Zhu said both the Irish House of Representatives and the Senate have frequent contacts with China's NPC, with Speaker Pattison paying numerous visits to China. The exchanges of visits between the parliaments of both countries have deepened the peoples' friendship and contributed to the development of bilateral ties, he added.

The Chinese premier hoped both sides will make joint efforts to increase contacts and push forward their cooperation in such areas as politics, trade, science, technology, culture and education.

Both speakers believed that Premier Zhu's current visit has achieved great success, saying Zhu's meeting with President McAleese and his talks with the Irish prime minister were " fruitful". The Chinese premier's visit has made even closer the links between the two countries and will promote bilateral ties to in an all-round way, they added.

The Chinese premier arrived in Dublin on Sunday for an official visit. Ireland is the first leg of his four-nation tour which will also take him to Belgium, Russia and Kazakhstan.