ULAN BATOR, July 15 -- China and Portugal strived to forge closer ties as their foreign ministers met Friday on the sidelines of the ongoing 11th Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) Summit in the capital of Mongolia.

"Sino-Portuguese relations have seen strong momentums, increasing mutual political trust and fruitful cooperation results," Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his Portuguese counterpart Augusto Santos Silva.

The two nations have also made progress in jointly exploring third-party markets, and continuously deepened cooperation in fields ranging from culture, education, tourism to sports, Wang said.

Hailing Portugal as an important European Unionmember, Wang said that China is willing to enhance mutual political trust, expand communication and cooperation, and push forward the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries.

Silva, for his part, said that since the comprehensive strategic partnership was set up, bilateral ties have grown both in economy and politics and people-to-people exchanges have strengthened while the two countries maintaining coordination in international affairs.

Portugal attaches great importance to developing relations with China, and is open to more investment from China and more humanities exchanges with China, Silva said, expressing the hope that both nations work together to lift bilateral relations to a new high.