China, Czech Republic to strengthen legislative cooperation, communication

PRAGUE, March 29-- Visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping and the Senate leader of the Czech Republic met on Tuesday to discuss bilateral ties and legislative cooperation.

Exchanges between legislatures of the two countries are important components of the China-Czech relations, and the strong support and active participation of the two countries' legislative institutions are indispensable to further developing bilateral ties, Xi said during a meeting with Milan Stech, President of the Senate of the Czech Parliament.

Xi urged legislatures of the two countries to improve and expand communication mechanisms, conduct closer friendly exchanges at various levels and enhance experiences sharing on such fields as legislature, supervision and managing state affairs.

China and the Czech legislative bodies should promote win-win cooperation on economy, trade and culture, so as to make greater contributions to consolidating the basis of popular support for bilateral ties, and promoting the development of China-Czech relations, said the president.

China stands ready to work with the Czech side to conduct closer high-level exchanges, enhance synergy of their strategies, give full play to their complementarity, deepen cooperation in various areas such as economy and trade, industry, tourism, culture and sports, and strengthen people-to-people exchanges, so as to achieve greater development of bilateral ties from the new start point of their strategic partnership, he added.

Stech said China's achievement in economic and social development is admirable and the two countries have enormous potential for further cooperation.

The Chinese president's state visit to the Czech Republic will lift bilateral relations and promote further development of their cooperation in economy and trade, tourism and culture, Stech said.

The Czech Senate is willing to have closer communication with China's relevant institutions to improve mutual understanding and jointly contribute to deepening Czech-China ties, he said.

Xi arrived Monday in Prague for a three-day state visit. It is the first state visit by a Chinese president in 67 years since the two countries established diplomatic ties.