Israel, China agree to expand bilateral cooperation

Israeli President Shimon Peres on Tuesday met with visiting Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong in Tel Aviv, Israel, pledging to step up cooperation between the two countries in diverse fields.

During the meeting, Peres recalled his successful visit to China last month.

"China has created a miracle of sustainable high speed development due to the extraordinary leadership of the Chinese leaders and hard struggle of the Chinese people," said Peres, who believed strengthening the cooperation in technology and innovation fields between the two countries is reciprocal.

Liu, who arrived in Israel Sunday for a five-day official visit, said that during the Second World War, the Chinese and Jewish peoples fought shoulder to shoulder against the world's fascism, stood together through the dark time and forged profound friendship.

China and Israel have developed amicable relations and fruitful cooperation since two countries established diplomatic ties more than two decades ago, said Liu.

The Chinese vice premier also said China hopes to boost the bilateral cooperation in areas such as technology, innovation, education, culture, health care and humanities.

An inter-government economic and technological cooperation mechanism has been established. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Liu on Monday signed a memorandum on the establishment of a joint bilateral committee to expand innovation cooperation between the two countries.

"China would like to take this opportunity to further integrate resources, continuously boost and deepen bilateral exchange and cooperation on the fields mentioned above. So that it would better benefit the people from the two countries," Liu said.