Premier Li concludes Romania trip with enhanced ties

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang wrapped up his Romania visit Thursday, after meeting with top Romanian politicians over bilateral cooperation and sitting down with leaders of Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries for an annual summit. [Special coverage]

His tightly scheduled trip, which included a round-table leaders' meeting with the CEE leaders and a trade forum, also saw a number of documents signed between China and CEE countries, including an agreement to build a railway linking Budapest and Belgrade.

His next stop will be the Uzbek capital of Tashkent, where he will attend the 12th prime ministers' meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

"EXEMPLARY" CHINA-ROMANIA PARTNERSHIP

Li arrived in Bucharest on Monday afternoon for his first visit to the Central and Eastern Europe since he took office in March. It is also the first visit to Romania by a Chinese premier in nearly two decades.

He was greeted at the airport by his Romanian counterpart Victor Ponta, who later co-chaired the China-CEE leaders' meeting held here on Tuesday. In a joint statement issued later in the day, China and Romania see their partnership is exemplary for inter-state relations.

Noting that this is the first time that Romania staged a welcome ceremony at the airport for a foreign guest in 20 years, Cui Hongjian, director of the European Department at the China Institute of International Studies, said the reception has shown the great importance Romania has attached to its relations with China.

"And you see that Romania has acted very positively throughout Li's trip...which contributed to a very fruitful visit," Cui said.

On Wednesday, the Chinese premier met with Romanian President Traian Basescu, to whom he described his visit to Romania as an endeavor to consolidate the two countries' traditional friendship and promote their practical cooperation.

China stands ready to deepen practical cooperation with Romania in such fields as trade, investment and infrastructure, expand cultural and people-to-people exchanges, strengthen communication and coordination on global and regional affairs and broaden common interests to benefit both peoples, Li said.

Located in the northeast of the Balkan Peninsula, Romania is the eastern gate to EU. The eastern European country was among the first countries to establish diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China (PRC). Bilateral trade between China and Romania in 2012 amounted to 3.78 billion U.S. dollars, compared with merely 3 million dollars in 2000.

Next year marks the 65th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries, and the 10th year of their partnership.

Comparing the China-Romania ties to a ship that has survived the storm of challenges over time and is sailing toward a bright future, Li said both sides need to find matching development strategies, deepen practical cooperation and secure their traditional friendship to steer the ship far and steady when addressing a full audience in the Parliament Palace on Wednesday afternoon.

"I believe that China-Romania cooperation could become a model for the cooperation between China and central and eastern European countries, which will in turn inject new impetus into development of China-Europe relations," Li said.