Beijing, 3 Mar (Xinhua) -- On the afternoon of 31 March, President Xi Jinping met with Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who was visiting China on an official visit at the Great Hall of the People.
On the afternoon of March 3, President Xi Jinping met with Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on an official visit to China at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Ding Haitao
Xi Jinping pointed out that China and Singapore are important cooperative partners, and China-Singapore relations have always shown a forward-looking, strategic and exemplary nature, which not only effectively promoted the respective development and revitalization of the two countries, but also set a benchmark for regional countries. China has placed Singapore as a priority in its peripheral diplomacy. During your visit to China, we upgraded China-Singapore relations into an all-round, high-quality, forward-looking partnership, and pointed out the direction for the future development of bilateral relations. China is willing to strengthen strategic communication with Singapore, deepen strategic docking, and earnestly make "high quality" the most distinctive symbol of China-Singapore cooperation.
Xi Jinping pointed out that among Southeast Asian countries, Singapore has the deepest participation in China's reform and opening up and the closest integration of interests with China. China is comprehensively promoting the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation with Chinese-style modernization, China's economic and social vitality will be further released, and it is willing to share important opportunities with Singapore and other countries willing to cooperate with China. China is willing to continue to make good use of the meeting platform of the China-Singapore bilateral cooperation mechanism with Singapore, strengthen the construction of new land-sea channels, deepen digitalization, green transformation and third-party cooperation, and actively and steadily promote personnel exchanges between the two countries.
Xi Jinping pointed out that over the years, the Asian region has maintained a good momentum of overall peace, stability, rapid development and overall rise, and regional countries have embarked on a development path with Asian characteristics of independence, mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit, openness and inclusiveness, and win-win cooperation through their own diligence and wisdom. In the context of the accelerated evolution of the world's century-old changes, we should especially cherish and safeguard the hard-won good development momentum in the Asian region, jointly safeguard the regional peace dividend, safeguard the correct direction of economic globalization and regional economic integration, resolutely oppose hegemony and bullying, clearly resist "decoupling and breaking the chain", and not allow any country to deprive the Asian people of their right to pursue a better and happy life.
On the afternoon of March 3, President Xi Jinping met with Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on an official visit to China at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Ding Haitao
Lee Hsien Loong said he was pleased to visit China again after several years and to see the rapid recovery of economic vitality across China. I have firm confidence in the resilience of China's economy, believe that China's economy will continue to improve, and Singapore and other neighboring countries look forward to further deepening economic cooperation with China. Singapore and China have strong friendship and deep understanding and mutual trust, and bilateral relations have always maintained a good momentum of development. Singapore looks forward to communicating with the new Chinese government as soon as possible, promoting cooperation on major projects such as connectivity, and taking the opportunity to complete the negotiations on the upgrading of the Singapore-China Free Trade Agreement to send a clear message that China continues to deepen opening up and that Singapore is committed to further deepening Singapore-China cooperation. I hope that through my visit, I will inject new vitality into the all-round and high-quality forward-looking partnership between Singapore and China, and promote more results in Singapore-China cooperation in various fields. Almost all countries in the world recognize that there is only one China in the world and have developed friendly and cooperative relations with China on the basis of the one-China policy. The Taiwan issue is China's internal affair, and advocating "Ukraine today, Taiwan tomorrow" will bring unpredictable and serious consequences. Singapore advocates mutual respect, peaceful coexistence, mutually beneficial cooperation, avoidance of conflicts, and joint efforts to address risks and challenges. Even if there is competition, it must be based on mutual respect and trust, and cannot choose sides in black and white.
The two sides also had an in-depth exchange of views on relations between major countries and international and regional issues of common concern.
Wang Yi, Qin Gang, and others attended the meeting.