China, Malaysia agree to lift ties to comprehensive strategic partnership

Visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping and Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak agreed on Friday to upgrade bilateral ties to a comprehensive strategic partnership.

During their talks, the two leaders spoke highly of the achievements made in cooperation between the two countries and had an in-depth exchange of views on advancing China-Malaysia ties in an all-around manner under new circumstances.

"China highly values its relations with Malaysia. The China-Malaysia relationship is taking the lead among China's relations with ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) members," said Xi.

The two leaders also laid out plans for economic and trade cooperation in the next five years and agreed on a target to boost bilateral trade to 160 billion U.S. dollars by 2017.

China has been Malaysia's largest trading partner for four consecutive years, while Malaysia has been China's largest in the 10-member ASEAN for five years in a row.

In 2012, two-way trade soared to a record high of 94.8 billion dollars, accounting for nearly a quarter of China's total with ASEAN countries.

In the first seven months of this year, bilateral trade stood at 59.72 billion dollars, up 14.9 percent year on year.